The Faeries' Lightning Dragon
by AtheistBear
Summary: Naruto's mind has been modified, changed. Pulled through the swirling nether into the world of Earthland, with memories of being raised by a dragon, join him on his quest to find out his past and what really happened. Strong!Naruto, Smart!Naruto, future pairings semi-decided. Rated for safety.
1. Going, Going, Gone!

**A/N: I've been reading here for years, but have never decided to actually publish anything until now. With the general quality of stories being on the decline, I have decided to throw my lot in and see what you guys think.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters represented herein and they are the property of their respective owners.**

**Chapter 1**

* * *

Going, Going, Gone!

So it had come, the final battle of good and evil. The final, deciding factor in the war over the fate of the elemental nations was underway. The force for good was Namikaze Naruto, the last remaining hope against the leader of Akatsuki. The force of evil, squaring off against Naruto was a man who was known simply as Obito. One side seeking peace through unity and solidarity within the countries, the other seeking peace through enslavement and illusion, yet both were steadfast in their belief that their way was right. They stared at one another from across a desolate and destroyed wasteland. Naruto stood enshrouded in a bright chakra cloak reminiscent of his sage cloak, with a large seal array that spanned his whole body. Obito stood opposite him, his long cloak tattered, his mask cracked, and his battle fan missing chunks out of it. His mismatched eyes stared intently at Naruto, watching him calculatingly. The tension in the air was thick; any sudden movement would shatter it, and cause another bout of blows to be traded. It was Obito that broke the palpable silence.

"I can see your chakra levels are fading quickly, you're almost down to your last dregs. Soon, the Kyuubi will be mine, and with the complete Jubi, my plan will be ready, and the hope of this world will be gone."

"Then I'll just have to end you here and now!" Naruto shouted as he raised his hands to his sides. He concentrated before shooting off fast enough to only be seen as an orange flash. He appeared to the left of the Uchiha, throwing his right hand across in an arcing hammer fist, which passed right through the Uchiha as he countered with a slash of the big fan. It passed harmlessly through an afterimage as Naruto's left hand appeared through his face as Naruto phased through his opponent. Madara reacted by solidifying as Naruto passed through, only to catch a tail-like tendril of chakra to the face as he went to grab Naruto. Having been sent careening to his left, the Uchiha righted himself before launching a wall of fire at the blonde. Naruto retaliated by zipping around the attack in another flash of orange before launching a roundhouse at the Uchiha. His foot passed through where his opponent's back was, before continuing his spin with a spin kick that passed through Obito once more. As his kick completed its circuit, his chakra cloak flickered before disappearing completely. Seizing the opportunity, Obito grabbed ahold of Naruto's left wrist, before wrenching it behind the blonde's back, Naruto snarled as he jabbed his fingernails into his opponent's chest in an attempt to get him to release his wrist. All it managed to do was draw blood as the Uchiha ignored it.

"Looks like you've reached your end. I admit, it was a good effort. But now, I have won and you have lost, and all hope for this world has vanished," Obito smirked triumphantly behind his mask.

Naruto continued to struggle to break the grip that the leader of Akatsuki had on his arm, before he felt warm trickle of blood down his fingers. His eyes widened in wonder before his trademark grin settled into place. "I've got one more trick up my sleeve, bastard."

In an instant he gathered up the remaining dregs of Kurama's chakra before channeling it into his hand and directly into his opponent's body, the highly corrosive and destructive chakra started to flow into Obito's chakra coils. Obito's eyes widened before trying to throw Naruto away, only to be surprised when his fingers sank deeper into his skin, and grabbed hold of a hand-sized chunk of flesh, with his middle finger hooked behind a rib. A startled gasp of pain escaped Madara before the burning started. He tried to phase out, but was unable to due to the demonic chakra coursing its way through his system. He tried again, before calling out in pain again, only this time, it was a roar of pain.

"Let go, brat!" the Uchiha spat out in fury, before grabbing his wrist again and twisted it, gaining a sickening crack and sharp cry of pain as he broke Naruto's wrist, yet the resilient blonde refused to let go, despite the raging fire in his wrist.

"You die here, asshole!" Naruto gritted out in pain. It took all of his amazing willpower to keep his hold on the Uchiha. "Face it, you've lost!"

In response to his declaration, despite the pain in his body, he started his teleportation/warping jutsu. His mind delirious with pain, he didn't think for a second that this could be the worst possible decision he had ever made. As the time/space warp flowed around him and Naruto, their bodies started to disappear and after a few seconds, they both disappeared, leaving the battleground vacant of all life.

* * *

In another realm a mighty beast was dying. This was an ancient being, living well past the normal age those of his kind reached. He was a colossal reptilian-like beast. He was covered snout to tail in glorious golden scales. Jewelry hung from the ends of several of his facial horns. The air about him was smothered and clouded with his ancient presence. He was in his lair, filled with various piles and mounds of precious stones, gold, magical artifacts, and weapons. His head was resting on his right foreleg, his eyes unfocused as he spent the last few moments reflecting on his life. With a slow blink he came back to reality, letting out a massive breath through his nostrils. Raising his head up, he started to collect his magical energy, as his thoughts ran rampant.

'_**I will not go quietly into the abyss without so much as a whimper. I will find a worthy human to inherit my power and will, just like some of these younger dragons.'**_ with his final thought, he let the completely gathered magic surge and coat his body, turning the whole of it into a giant, glowing beacon of white light. An ancient, unnamed magic surrounded the dragon before it dissipated into nothingness, leaving the cave that was his lair empty of his presence except for his impressive hoard.

* * *

Naruto and Obito found themselves tumbling through what appeared to be a winding tunnel, lined with purple and blue cosmic ether. Neither had any sense of up, down, left, or right, all they knew was pain, as their bodies felt like they were being torn apart. Suddenly, both of the men found themselves righted, finally having a sense of up, as from further down the tunnel came a brilliant, golden light. Naruto's eyes widened in amazement, the feeling of being torn apart passing. Looking to his left, he noticed Obito looking just as amazed. Turning his attention back to the approaching light, they were stunned when a figure appeared. Both men knew what it was from fairy tales from long ago. It was a dragon. It seemed just as surprised to see them, as they were it, as it came to a halt on its path before them; hovering in nothingness it surveyed them. A golden tendril extended toward both men, before entering their foreheads.

To Naruto, it felt as if an ancient, wise presence was sifting through his memories. Whatever this dragon was, it felt natural, and soothing. Almost as if he was channeling nature chakra. So he let it do as it wished, welcoming it into his subconscious. He was filled with a sense of warmth and calm. It felt as if the dragon was trying to be delicate and polite, as if it was weighing his choices in life. As it dug through his childhood, he felt as if the dragon was laughing at his antics, and weeping with him in his loneliest times. It watched his ups, and downs, saw his dreams, and loves. After what felt like hours, he felt the dragon had accepted him.

"Give me your power! It belongs to me!" came Obito's voice as he reached for the white tendril as it left his head. Seeing the hostility, the glowing dragon reared its head back and with a mighty roar, blasted the Uchiha out of the tunnel with a cone of lightning into the ether of space and time. With the evil Uchiha taken care of, the dragon turned its attention to Naruto. As if sensing his hesitance, the dragon broadcasted an aura of calm, before with a mighty roar, it flew at Naruto. His eyes widened in fear as the dragon flew directly at Naruto. He watched as it neared him, and with nowhere to run, he awaited his fate. As the being neared, his body erupted in new pain. This time it felt like his body was having a piece of it ripped off. He watched as Kurama was pulled from his body forcibly. Naruto turned his gaze to the surprised and fearful face of Kurama as he too was blasted through the wall into the swirling nether. Following the gigantic fox, a haze of blue erupted from his stomach. This time it felt like his life was going to end as he watched the chakra that had been his leave. Just before he felt like he was going to perish, the dragon flew into his body, becoming absorbed and replacing his chakra as his life source. A surge of power washed through Naruto's body. Naruto's eyes widened as he felt a well of foreign power within his body. Suddenly, there was a huge explosion of this new energy in his body. With a huge roar, his back arched as lightning crackled around his form. His skin changed and adopted bright golden scales, his canines lengthened, and his fingers sprouted talons. Almost as fast as the surge erupted within him, it stopped. His body fell limp as he lost consciousness, and he spiraled along on his journey through the tunnel of swirling nether.

* * *

In a brilliant display of lightning and swirling light, a portal started to form in the sky outside the town of Magnolia in the Kingdom of Fiore. It drew the attention of all who were outside this day. The intensity of the glow was only eclipsed by that of the sun on the bright afternoon. Among those that were entranced by the glow were most of the mages of the guild known as Fairy Tail. Makarov stood on the roof of the guild hall of Fairy Tail with two other people. His diminutive stature was dwarfed by the other two, and his bright orange suit stood out in contrast to the others' darker tones. Both of them were S-Class mages, the mysterious man from another dimension, Mystogan and his grandson Laxus. Mystogan was of average build and height, though most of that was obscured behind a long black cloak, white bandages on his extremities, a camouflage face mask, and a bandana with a metal plate on the forehead. On his back was a single stave. It was one of the sources for his arsenal of spells. Laxus was almost the complete opposite of Mystogan. He was very tall, with spikey blond hair. He wore a pair of magic headphones that were spiked on the outside. He had a scar over his right eye in the shape of a lightning bolt. He had a scowl set on his face, his brows furrowed in a permanent scowl. He wore a long, black coat about his shoulders that had fur along the collar and down the opening. His arms were crossed over a brown-ish shirt with patches of leopard-like spots. His pants were a burgundy, and covered his silver boots.

All three of the powerful men watched the developing spectacle. After a few minutes, Makarov directed a question at Mystogan without taking his eyes off the phenomenon, "Is it an anima?"

Mystogan hesitated for a second before speaking, "No, it doesn't have the same signature as one. Plus," he pointed to the swirling mass, "the rotation is wrong. It's not sucking up into the air, but rather swirling to the ground."

"It's definitely magical," Laxus remarked. "That lightning isn't natural."

Makarov stared at whatever it was analyzing it. He was silent for a few minutes before speaking again, "I would like you two to follow me, I want to get the first look at whatever comes out of that. It might potentially be harmful, and I might need your assistance in dealing with it."

Mystogan only nodded in response while Laxus scoffed, but grunted in agreement. With that all three jumped from the roof of Fairy Tail and took off for the convergence point of the vortex.

* * *

The group of three Fairy Tail mages was still about a kilometer away from where the opening of the vortex was. All were moving at a decent clip, Makarov was able to keep up easily despite his short stature and age. As they drew near, a loud roar drew them to a halt. Six eyes were drawn immediately upward. It seemed as if the lightning was picking up, and a glow could be seen approaching from within the tunnel.

"We better pick up the pace," Makarov started to speak, "unless we-" he was cut off as an immense magical force came crashing down upon them like a wave. Mystogan was forced to a knee from the surprise of it, Laxus visibly tensed his body to remain upright, and Makarov's own magic flared on instinct to keep him upright. As quickly as it appeared, it vanished. All three men relaxed and Mystogan returned to his standing position.

Mystogan looked at the other two accompanying him, "We better hurry, whatever it is, it's coming." A cock-sure grin spread across Laxus' lips and with a leap, his lightning magic encapsulated him, and he shot towards where the vortex would be depositing its contents.

"Laxus! Get back here!" Makarov cried in vain, only to have his attention redrawn to the sky, where the light grew brighter. From the mouth of the hole in the sky, a crackling, electric dragon's head emerged. It was a magnificent beast, an imposing beast. With a roar, it disappeared, and from the mouth of the vortex, a comet-like object shot down to the earth. Mystogan and Makarov both watched as it neared the tops of the trees, briefly disappearing before a shuddering quake passed beneath their feet. Without any words between the mages, the remaining two guild members jolted towards the crash site in a full sprint.

* * *

Naruto's eyes fluttered open, just in time to see a dazzling display of light before him. His mind was clouded and his vestibular sense had finally kicked in, and he had a sense of what was up and down, and he was currently heading for the latter. His eyes widened as he burst through the light, only to see the very fast-approaching ground. He couldn't even scream in fright before a searing headache shot through his skull.

'_**Lightning Dragon's Thunder Drop…'**_

A voice! He heard a voice! It came from inside his head. Along with the voice and words came a vision, like he was watching himself perform the move. He saw his body accumulating the electrical energy flowing within him and then releasing it just before hitting the ground, causing a repulsion effect that left his body unharmed, as well as discharging the gathered magic in a circle around him for up to twenty feet. After processing the vision, which only took half a second, he reacted, righting himself in midair, and gathering the needed magic before his body was encased in electricity and he plummeted straight to the ground at terminal velocity. Just before impact, due to his ingrained reflexes, he released the energy at the precise time and found himself crouched in a forty foot wide, fifteen feet deep crater.

He looked around absently, not really taking in all that was around him. It seems he had landed in a forest. And that was all that his addled brain would compute. It seemed he was having a short in his brain somewhere. As he stood, blankly staring at the forest, a shooting pain throbbed through his head. He raised both hands and grasped at his blonde locks. A pained groan was all that he could manage. Inside his head all of his thoughts were a jumble of nonsense. It was hard to even grasp a single thought, not even a memory was able to be held down long enough to process it.

Naruto stumbled around inside of his crater as he felt knowledge siphoned out of his head, only to be replaced with new. It was as if they were his own, yet he could say he never lived it. Or at least he didn't remember living it. His attention was drawn to the rim of the crater as a voice called out to him. Up top he saw a tall man with spikey blonde hair, like his own, yet unlike his own. His eyes were a dark color that he couldn't make out, and his clothes looked very strange. He glanced at his own clothing and noticed that there was a whole lot of orange on his legs, but not a whole lot else. His body was covered in dirt, maybe from the landing? He was sore, but not painfully so, just like he had intensely worked out. He nicked his lip on one of his long, sharp canines. He really should've been used to them after having them for so long. Or had he? His mind was still a mass of unknown to himself.

"Hey! I'm talking to you, punk!"

Hearing that, Naruto looked back up to the person talking, and looked at him strangely. He knew those words, but what did they mean? _"Give me a moment, I'm having a problem remembering,"_ he called back, yet looked like the guy up top had no clue what he was talking about.

"Speak real words, not nonsense!" Laxus commanded.

"_I am, you _ass_! I said give me a minute!"_ Naruto yelled back as another spear of pain shot through his skull.

"I'll teach you to call me and ass!" Laxus said with anger in his eyes, clearly understanding one of the words Naruto said. "Take this!" and with that yell, he launched a lightning bolt at Naruto that closed in very fast.

'_**Electric Drain…'**_

As with the **Thunder Drop**, a voice appeared in his head. Following the visions that appeared rapidly, he raised his right hand as if to catch the bolt of lightning, only for it to be absorbed into his arm. Both of the blondes watched as the lightning bolt was absorbed by the blonde, and when it was fully absorbed, his arms crackled with blue electricity. Naruto looked at his hands in wonder, before turning to the stunned Laxus with a smirk as another vision filled his head.

"_Here's payback, _asshole!**Alpha Bolt!**" Naruto snarled at Laxus, unleashing his own bolt of lightning at the other blonde man. Unlike Laxus, his lightning was blue, and Laxus was almost too distracted by his absorption technique that he almost didn't react in time to dodge the lightning that was thrown at him.

With a smirk, Laxus shrugged off his coat, "You wanna fight Lightning with Lightning, I'll give you more than you can handle!" His body erupted into motion, becoming consumed in lighting and shooting off at extreme speeds at Naruto in the crater.

Naruto didn't need to follow Laxus with his eyes to see where he was going to be. It was telegraphed by the lightning that surrounded the blonde. A regular mage couldn't sense it, but due to his training with $! *& , he could read it almost like a book. What he didn't expect, however, is that power behind the kick that was launched at him that he blocked with his crossed forearms. He was sent flying with widened eyes. He braced himself for impact, as his body collided with the bank of the crater. Dust was once again kicked up, and Laxus' vision was obscured. "Take that, punk."

From within the cloud of dust, Naruto erupted, his hands covered in arcing blue electricity. In a split second, he was upon Laxus, who was pushed on the defensive as Naruto swung with electrified fists, intent on bringing him down. It seemed his **Gigawatt Blade** was only good enough to enhance his strength against his attacker, seeing as how all he was doing was pushing him back, granted the taller man's eyes were wide in surprise, but he was still able to endure his onslaught. With a cry he called out his next attack, "**Lightning Dragon's Iron Fist!**" His fist erupted on contact with Laxus' crossed arms, sending a conical storm of lightning into the taller man's body, this time sending him careening into the crater side with a crash.

Naruto watched intently for any sign of his attacker rising. He didn't let his guard up, but it didn't prepare him for the lightning erupting beneath his feet. He was enshrouded by lightning that was biting at his skin, and propelling him into the air. He was launched sixty feet into the air, his body stinging from the lightning biting at his skin. He glanced at the ground as he rose, only to see Laxus standing, a scowl on his face, yet not pursuing. He was underestimating the blonde in the air. As he reached his apex, he began to gather electricity into his limbs. Bringing them in close, he started his free fall back to earth feet first. He aimed his body at Laxus, whose eyes widened, before trying to jump away, only for Naruto to impact scant feet from Laxus, letting his **Thunder Drop** burst forth, the shockwave caught Laxus and sent him tumbling through the air. He was able to right himself and land like a cat, only to have to move as from Naruto's mouth came the words, "**Lightning Dragon's Roar!**" anda large eruption of blue lightning came barreling at him.

"You want to play that way?" Laxus growled out, as he began to gather his power. His upper body bulged and his shirt was ripped off as flesh-colored scales emerged on his arms. "Take this! **Lightning Dragon's Roar!**"

Naruto's eyes widened as his attack came barreling straight at him. Only this one was a few times stronger than his own. Another vision erupted in his mind along with the voice again.

'_**Polarity Shield…'**_

Raising his right hand palm out, a shield of shimmering blue electricity roughly his size appeared between him and Laxus' attack. Naruto was completely engulfed in the amazingly strong blast. As the lightning died down, Laxus could see Naruto standing with his arm outstretched; his body was trembling from the strain of keeping the shield up for so long against something so powerful. Naruto rose to his full height, and glared at the taller blonde in front of him. Just as the blonde before him, he started to gather his magical power too.

"I can do it too, asshole," Naruto snarled. And like Laxus, his power started to roll off him in waves. His forearms gained golden scales, his fingernails became talons, and his jaw gained scales along it. Blue lightning crackled around him, the air being energized by him.

"Bring it on!" Laxus roared at him, as both men started to gather the magic required for the attack.

In unison, both cried the name of the attack, "**Lightning Dragon's Roar!**"

Both attacks met each other midway across the crater. The brilliant gold of Laxus' attack met and was matched by Naruto's raging blue. Both tried to overpower the other, only for the colors to swirl and battle for dominance in the center. That was the scene that Makarov and Mystogan both happened upon. They both had to shield their eyes from the intensity of the light being emitted. Eventually the attacks culminated in a large explosion, kicking up a lot of dust and dirt, obscuring the two fighters. When it finally settled and blew away with the breeze, it showed both the blondes lying on their backs, imbedded in the crater wall. Both were covered in dirt from head to toe, and both were cringing in pain. Eventually the blonde opposite Laxus began to get to his feet, shakily.

"_You _see_ that? That's what a _real dragon_ can do. Looks like _I win_ this round,"_ Naruto smirked cheekily. He started to chuckle, but was cut short as a shock of pain seared his brain, this time more intense than before. He clutched his head and let out a pained scream before collapsing to the ground unconscious. Seeing this, Makarov and Mystogan ran into the crater, Makarov to his grandson, and Mystogan to the unconscious blonde. Mystogan immediately began assessing the blonde's injuries.

Makarov went up to Laxus with a frown, "What were you thinking, you idiot? You could have killed him! Did you at least get his name before you started a fight against him?"

Laxus only groaned at the chewing out he was starting to receive as he pushed himself out of his earthen bed, "You don't need someone's name to fight them. Besides, he was alright. He could probably handle anything I throw at him. He's a good fighter," he said as he stood. His body ached all over. Most of the power in that attack was his opponent's, and it was very potent. "He's like Natsu."

Surprise was evident in Makarov's eyes, "A **Dragon Slayer**? Is he affiliated with any guild?"

"I don't think so. I didn't see any marks on him. But that doesn't mean that he doesn't have it on his tongue like Bickslow," the leader of the Thunder God Tribe remarked about one of his followers.

Makarov's mind started to go into overdrive. What could this mean? The boy looked as old as Natsu did, how was it that he didn't have any guild affiliations? It was surprising that a **Dragon Slayer** wasn't swooped up by some guild. They were very powerful, and had the potential to be even more so. Laxus could see the gears turning in his grandfather's mind, "You're thinking of inviting him to join the guild, aren't you?"

"Only if he wants to," Makarov stated. "I don't want to force him to join."

Laxus cast a glance at the unconscious blonde that Mystogan was hefting onto his shoulder, "You better try your hardest to get him to join. Maybe having some powerful new member our guild won't be looked down on by the Council or anyone else."

"Hmph, you know Fairy Tail doesn't care what people think of us," Makarov frowned.

"Psh, when I'm guild master there'll be changes," Laxus scowled watching Mystogan come to stand beside them.

"We better get him to Porlyusica," Mystogan informed the men. "He's got a fever and is trembling."

Makarov nodded and the group left, with Laxus leaving Makarov and Mystogan to get his opponent to the old healer.

* * *

It was an unknown amount of time later that Naruto awoke. He was groggy, his head was killing him, and his stomach desired some much needed sustenance. His eyes fluttered open as he sat up and looked around. He was in a bed that had orange sheets, in a house that looked to be made in the inside of a tree if the bark on the interior walls was any indication. There was a bookshelf in front of him, full of books, a few windows around the room, as well as a desk and chair across the room. There also seemed to be a flower bed inside the house. It was very cozy. He swung his legs out of the bed and went to stand, and almost toppled over. His whole body was sore and protested the action. He noticed that he was standing only in his underwear, and looked around for his clothes, but couldn't find any. Nearby he saw a pair of sweat pants and a white tee-shirt. Below them was a pair of sandals. He looked at them and it seemed that they would fit him, so he slipped the pants and tee-shirt on before sliding his toes around the strap that held the sandals on his feet. He then walked over to the sink that he saw off in the corner and ran some water and drank it straight from the tap, seeing as he couldn't immediately see a cup and didn't want to be rude.

A flash of pink caught his eye as it made its way across a window; it looked like someone's hair, pulled into a bun. He made his way to the door to see if he couldn't find this person and ask them his whereabouts. He exited and was greeted with the sight of an old, fairly tall, thin woman sweeping the grass. Hearing the door open, she turned towards the sound and was greeted with the sight of her latest patient. A frown marred her face.

"You're finally awake. About time, I was getting tired of taking care of you," Porlyusica told the blonde.

"Sorry for burdening you, ma'am. I-"

"Porlyusica," the old woman stated her name, interrupting the blonde in the process.

"I'm sorry?" Naruto asked confused.

"That's my name, so use it," she said harshly.

"Oh, I'm Naruto Namikaze. Nice to meet you Porlyusica-san," Naruto said extending his hand to shake hers. Her eyes just narrowed and looked at the offered hand like it was diseased. Naruto, seeing that she wasn't going to shake his hand lowered it and offered an embarrassed smile. "So… How did I end up here in your… home?" he asked unsure if it was indeed her home.

She stared at him for a moment before scoffing, "Hmph. That idiot, Makarov, brought you here five days ago. He says you fell from the sky, and that you and his grandson got in a small scuffle."

"Scuffle?" Naruto thought to himself. Then it came rushing back to him. He had been trying out one of his new techniques and ended up landing in the forest, causing a crater. He then ran into that blonde bastard that used lightning magic… And his own techniques! "That bastard! Where's he at?! I'm gonna kick his ass for stealing my moves!"

Porlyusica reacted by lashing out with her broom and smacking him on the head, "Shut up! You humans are disgusting, loud creatures!" This caused Naruto to cower slightly. He watched her calm down, but she didn't lose her scowl. "Makarov will probably want to know you're awake, and since you seem to be in good enough condition to walk, I'll take you to the guild hall of Fairy Tail."

Naruto could only nod in agreement as she leaned her broom against her house and started out of the clearing where her house was. He followed a few paces behind her, and took in the beauty of the forest. It didn't take long at all for them to reach the outskirts of Magnolia and the Fairy Tail guild hall that stood prominently before them. It looked like a pagoda, with three tiers. The roof was tiled, and the walls were white-washed. The back was next to the creek that ran through Magnolia town, and not too far away was a bridge that Porlyusica was heading towards.

After crossing the bridge, it only took a few more minutes before they came to the front of the building. Above the entrance was the name of the guild, yet Porlyusica paid no heed to it, and kept walking forward, pushing open one of the two doors to the hall. Inside, the hall was composed of mostly wood. Thick, wooden beams acted as the central structure of the hall. There were four rows of tables two on either side of the main thoroughfare, each row eight deep. Naruto was impressed. It wasn't over-the-top, but it felt homey. All around the tables various people sat. He didn't recognize a single one of them. Porlyusica kept walking, through all of the people sitting at the tables and the various employed waitresses serving the patrons. Naruto noticed he was getting quite a few looks from a lot of the people sitting around, but he had no time to ponder this as he had to keep following Porlyusica as she was now climbing a set of stairs that lead to a small balcony and a door on said balcony. Without knocking, she pushed the door open and Naruto followed and closed the door behind him.

Inside was a cozy office. All around the room were bookshelves filled top to bottom with books, some resting on small end tables, and some on chairs, and even some stacked on the floor almost as high as some as the book cases. Behind the large desk in the room was a very small man with very ostentatious clothing, sitting on a stack of books so that he could see over the edge of the desk. In his hands was a pipe that he was packing tobacco into. He looked up from what he was doing to glare at whoever barged in unannounced, only to soften his expression at seeing his old teammate.

"Ah. Porlyusica, looking lovely as ever. How may I assist you today?" Makarov asked pleasantly.

"The one you dropped off woke up. He's your problem now," and with her message delivered with cold indifference, she turned, brushing past Naruto and left the office. Said blonde watched her go and then turned to face the old man who was appraising him with a soft expression.

"Is she always so cold?" Naruto asked the older mage.

Makarov just chuckled in response, "I've known her since we were kids, and I have to say, yes, she has always been that way. She's a really caring person, she just does better when it's one-on-one, and she doesn't have to put up with a lot of people."

"Ah, I see," Naruto said with a nod. A slightly uncomfortable silence reigned in the room, at least to Naruto it was uncomfortable. Not liking silence, he cleared his throat, "So… you're the guild master?"

Makarov nodded in response and held out his hand for a handshake, "Master Makarov Dreyar, third guild master of Fairy Tail. A pleasure to make your acquaintance…?"

"Naruto. Naruto Namikaze," Naruto said taking the offered appendage. Both men shared a hearty handshake and Makarov gestured to the open seat, so Naruto took the open one across the desk from him. "I'd like to thank you for taking me to Porlyusica-san to get healed. I'm very grateful… and I'm sorry if I may have harmed your grandson," he remarked looking sheepish.

His worries were assuaged as Makarov smiled and gave a dismissive wave, "Water under the bridge. Besides, he told me he was the first one to strike. You were just defending yourself, so I should apologize for his actions, don't think that they reflect all of Fairy Tail."

"Oh! No, never!" Naruto assured the old man. "Though I'd like to have another crack at him… Move-stealing bastard…" he muttered under his breath, but not low enough so that Makarov missed it.

"Move-stealing?" Makarov questioned with a raised eyebrow.

Naruto blushed at being heard and scratched his head in embarrassment, "Er… Well, he used a move that should only be able to be used by someone that was trained like I was, so I don't understand how he could do it."

"What do you mean by how you were trained?" Makarov questioned, already knowing the answer.

"Well, I'm a **Dragon Slayer**. I was trained by the lightning dragon-" he stopped suddenly. He got a confused look on his face. He couldn't remember his foster parent's name. The dragon raised him for nearly twelve years, and he couldn't remember his name. That was troubling to him. He looked at Makarov, visibly distressed, "I don't remember his name."

"It might have something to do with your head and the fall you had," Makarov said. "You took quite a plunge, I mean you were dropped out of the sky from a swirling vortex. Maybe you fell hard enough and got some memory loss."

Naruto nodded in agreement, but it did nothing to help his fear of not remembering his dragon-parent's name. "But I remember everything else…"

"Well, let's see what you do remember. Let's see if you're oldest memories are intact, when were you born?"

"October… Tenth?" Naruto asked himself, before nodding. "Yeah, October Tenth, the year X7… X7…"

"It's okay, how old are you? We can work that out that way," Makarov smiled at the boy.

"I'm eighteen," Naruto stated.

"Then that means you were born October 10, X765, since it's May 3, X784," Makarov informed the young man. "Do you know why you were speaking gibberish when we found you?"

"Huh?" Naruto questioned.

"When we found you, you were speaking gibberish with only a few coherent words that any of us could understand."

"I don't know what you're talking about, I only know plain English that we're speaking now, my foster parent taught me," Naruto informed Makarov.

The older man just nodded in understanding. "I believe you, so do you know what that portal was that you fell out of?"

Naruto strained his brain and could only come up with one explanation, "I don't know what you mean by portal. I was trying a new technique and didn't realize how high I was when I accidentally let it go and fell to the ground."

Makarov nodded in approval. He didn't think that Naruto's memories were actually true, but that they were what his mind conjured up for him to deal with what happened to him. He pulled his pipe out of his mouth and snuffed the flame with his thumb. "Have you put any thought into what you will do now that you are recovered?"

Naruto adopted a thinking pose for a minute, before nodding, "Well, I would like to repay Porlyusica-san for taking care of me, and I would like to repay you as well, for bringing me to her so I could get treated."

Makarov waved a dismissive hand again, "No need to repay me, my boy. I did just what I thought would be right." With a calculating look in his eye he posed another question, "You're not affiliated with any guild, are you, Naruto-kun?"

The blonde responded with a shake of his head, "No, I never really felt the need to. I mean, I have a fairly good amount of riches that was left behind by my foster parent."

The elder just nodded his head, "I see. If I extended an invitation to join our family, what would you say?"

This took the blonde by surprise, "W-well I, uh, would be honored that you would offer, but…"

"You know," Makarov started before swiveling his chair and looking out the window behind his desk, "Laxus expressed hope that you would join. He expressed his desire to fight you again, and it would be a lot easier to track you down if you were here, with us."

Sparks seemed to dance in Naruto's eyes at the mention of battling Laxus again, "So, that bastard wants a rematch, huh? Well, let's go. We'll settle his move-stealing ways here and now!"

"Actually, he and his team have gone on a mission. They won't be back for a month or two," Makarov said with a shrewd smile that Naruto couldn't see.

Said blonde bristled, "Well, I guess I'll just have to join up then! I got a bone to pick with that bastard!"

Makarov swiveled back around, a grin plastered on his face, "Glad to hear it! Let's get this all official then!" And just like that, Naruto had been suckered into joining up with Fairy Tail, thinking it was his own idea in the first place.

An hour later, Naruto emerged from the guild master's office, Makarov in tow. He had gotten the guild stamp placed on his left shoulder in a bright orange that stood out against his skin and could be seen through his tee shirt. The pair made their way to the bar, where the resident barkeep, Mirajane was returning with a platter full of cups. Her big blue eyes widened before closing with her smile.

"Good afternoon, Master," she said with a small bow, inadvertently giving Naruto a better glimpse at her impressive chest that was confined behind her elegant red dress. She righter herself and turned her smile to Naruto, who couldn't help but return it to the beauty, "Who is this?"

"This is our newest member," Makarov told the woman.

"Naruto Namikaze," Naruto introduced himself, extending his hand to shake hers. She grasped his, and he was amazed at just how small and soft her hands felt in his.

"Mirajane Strauss, but everyone just calls me Mira," she smiled kindly to Naruto. They then disengaged their handshake as she clasped her hands in front of her chest. "Please allow me to be the first to formally welcome you to Fairy Tail! I hope that you have a good time and that we can all find a new friend in you!"

Naruto blushed and scratched his cheek at her exuberance, "Well, thank you very much. I hope to make many friends during my time as well."

Makarov, satisfied that he was already making friends with his new fellow guild-mates, turned to Mira, "Please see to it that a tab is opened in his name. We'll run a tab until you get some money in your hands, okay, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto nodded, feeling sheepish, "Okay. I can go get some money, though. I just have to return to my home, it'll be about a full day's round trip from here."

Makarov raised his dismissive hand again, "There's no rush, Naruto-kun. We're a family here, and we take care of our own. Please, you must be tired still from your stay with Porlyusica, so take a few days, make some friends, then we can start to worry about money and jobs and such."

Naruto could only nod his head at the old man. He watched as the old man returned to his office, then turned back to the beautiful waitress that was giving him her attention.

"So what would you like Naruto-kun?" Mira asked as she pulled out a menu from beneath the counter.

"I'll have…"

* * *

It was three hours later that found Naruto sitting at the bar, his back resting against it, a mug of amber liquid in his right hand. Over the last three hours, he had talked with Mira as she came back to the bar after dispensing the orders that kept coming in from all of the thirsty and hungry patrons. He could say that she was his first official friend in Fairy Tail. They had talked about anything and everything that came to mind. He learned that she was an S-Class mage, despite the fact that she rarely, if ever, went on missions anymore. She preferred to stay at the guild hall and take care of all of the people visiting and returning home. She said that there was nothing like seeing at least one friendly and familiar face in the guild. He also learned that she was very adept at **Transformation Magic **which she used to impress him by transforming her face into that of his. It was weird seeing himself with womanly curves, but it didn't feel like he hadn't seen something similar before. He told her that he was a **Dragon Slayer** seeing as she shared her skill with him. It surprised him when she said that there were now two **Dragon Slayers** in Fairy Tail.

"So, if you're a **Dragon Slayer**, what element do you have control over?" Mira asked wanting to know all about him.

Naruto simply held up a hand and generated a small bit of blue lightning around his hands, manipulating the current so that it took on the symbol of Fairy Tail. "Lightning," he replied with a smile.

She smiled back at him, "Wow, now not only do we have two **Dragon Slayers**, we also have two lightning-element mages!"

"Ugh… Don't remind me," Naruto scowled.

Mirajane just cocked her head to the left in curiosity, "You know Laxus?"

Naruto let out an undignified snort, "Yeah, I know that move-stealing bastard. Next time I see him, he'll get his rematch, and then some!"

Mira was now even more confused, but just nodded in agreement before excusing herself to give out more orders. He then noticed another presence slide up to his opposite side. Turning, his eyes widened in surprise at the state of dress -or was it undress?- of the girl that sat down next to him. She wore nothing but sandals, capris, and a bikini top. There was also a strap of a small satchel that hung at her left hip that followed the valley of her rather large breasts. Her guild stamp stood out prominently close to her left hip on her lower abdomen. Her long, brown hair hung in sheets around her shoulders. A red flush was very noticeable across her pretty face, the large amount of alcohol sitting at the table in the direction from which she came must have been the culprit for that. She smiled coquettishly at him, causing him to blush a bit.

"So… Did I hear right and you implied that you fought Laxus… and survived?" she asked with a dazzling smile.

"Not just survived, I won. If I hadn't passed out from a really bad headache he'd be in the hospital still. That smug bastard," Naruto said with a scowl.

The beautiful brunette's eyes widened in appreciation of his accomplishment; to say she was surprised was an understatement. She let out a small whistle, "Wow! You must be pretty powerful to take on one of Fairy Tail's strongest and come out on top. Besides the master, Laxus is the second strongest in Fairy Tail."

"Really?" Naruto asked in surprise. "That arrogant bastard is that powerful?"

The girl just nodded and took a sip of her beer. She set it down and extended her hand to Naruto, "I'm Cana Alberona by the way."

"Naruto Namikaze," Naruto smiled back, shaking her hand that felt really similar to Mira's. "So, are you a mage, Cana?"

Cana nodded in response, pulling out her deck of magic cards, "Yep, I use **Card Magic**. With these I can divine the future, to an extent, and cast some pretty devastating spells."

Naruto whistled in appreciation. "That's cool. I'm a **Lightning Dragon Slayer**," he smiled. This stunned the beautiful brunette.

"Another one? Natsu's gonna flip when he hears this," Cana smirked.

"Who's Natsu?" Naruto questioned.

"He's the **Fire Dragon Slayer** of Fairy Tail," came Mira's voice from behind him. Tilting his head so he could see the barmaid, she continued. "He and Happy are following a lead that they got. Some guy calling himself Salamander has been seen somewhere to the north. Natsu thinks that it might be Igneel, the dragon that raised Natsu."

Naruto nodded. That made sense. He took a sip of the beer in his hand and set it down on the counter. He then looked at both of the beautiful ladies who were both looking at him. He decided to tease the girls and see how they reacted when he turned the Namikaze charm up to eleven. "So, what did I do to earn the honor of being the center of attention of two very beautiful women?"

Cana smirked in response, very used to having many guys hit on her. Mira just smiled with a bit of a flush on her face, also used to having men hit on her, but not used to being called beautiful. Cana took another swig of beer before answering, "Hey now, I usually charge for people to be in my company before getting to know them fully. So count your blessings that you're good-looking and I won't charge you for that." It had been a long time since Naruto had been complimented on his looks, which caused him to blush. It seemed his plan was backfiring.

"Well, unlike Cana, I have thoroughly enjoyed our time spent together, so I can say that you have earned my attention with your beautiful personality," Mira said with a stunning smile, her blush still in place.

Naruto buried his embarrassed blush by taking another drink. "Well, it looks like my plan to tease you both has backfired spectacularly. Kudos," he then raised his glass to both of the women in surrender and a salute. This caused Cana to laugh and Mirajane to giggle demurely.

Cana decided that it was her turn to tease him. "So, I've been wondering, where did you get those whisker-like marks?"

"These? They're birthmarks," Naruto said pointing at his face.

"Well, I think they're very cute," Cana said, reaching out to him and rubbing her hand across his cheek. Her eyes widened in surprise, "What the hell? They're actually imbedded in your skin!"

Naruto's eyes widened and jerked back, a huge blush on his face. It felt really good. "Careful now, they're really sensitive." He then felt another hand rub his face, this time it was Mira's. Her fingers danced lightly across the marks and gently traced them. A soft groan escaped Naruto's lips. His eyes rolled back into his head and he pushed his cheek into Mira's hand a little more. Suddenly a deep, soft rumble escaped from deep within Naruto's chest. This caused Mira to stop and Cana to look at him astounded. Naruto froze in embarrassment.

Both women shared a look before Mira voiced her question, "Naruto… Did you just purr?"

Naruto just retracted his face from Mira's hand and tried to drown himself in his beer. His face was a brilliant crimson. "It felt good…" he murmured, yet both women could hear. With a squeal, Mira pulled Naruto halfway across the bar and planted his face in her bosom.

"That is so cuuute!" Mira gushed as she held his face between her breasts with her arms wrapped around his head in a hug. Cana couldn't help but grin mischievously.

"Hey, Elfman! The new guy's putting the moves on your sister!" she called across the hall. Naruto managed to free himself in time to hear a loud "WHAT?!" from across the hall and watched as a giant of a man came barreling toward the bar. Yep. It looked like Naruto was fitting in already.

* * *

**A/N: And that's a wrap. For this chapter at least. If anyone is confused at what is going through Naruto's head, don't worry, he is too. With the fusing of the knowledge of the dragon, came fabricated memories. All memories of his old life are gone. His ability to use chakra is gone, Kurama is gone, and all of his memories of his former life are gone. The only things that he does remember are related to him. There will not be any more interactions with the Naruto-verse. This will be an almost-retelling of the Fairy Tail manga. I haven't decided how his adventures will pan out from here on out just yet. As for his power level, it will be explained later on. Also, most of his techniques will be Lightning variations on Natsu's abilities, as well as using the abilities of Cole McGrath of inFamous and inFamous 2. Not all will be used however, and some will be changed to suit the environment.**

**Thank you for reading, and please, leave a review. I also request that if you are going to review, sign in, please. I hate it when people use anonymous reviews to flame people. Also, flames will be ignored. I'm not trying to write for you, I'm mostly trying to write for myself.**

**Many thanks,**

**AtheistBear**


	2. All That Remains

**A/N: Here is the second installment of the story. Please read and review.**

**I've also had questions concerning Naruto's power, where he's at right now, is right around where Natsu was during the S-Class exam. His whole going into Dragon Force was his body's reaction to Laxus' transformation, and its acclimation to his newfound powers. As it stands, he's probably tied with Erza at the beginning of the series power-wise, but he's nowhere near Gildarts' level.**

* * *

**Chapter 2**

All That Remains

It had been a week since Naruto joined Fairy Tail. He was fitting in swimmingly. His best friends in the guild were Mirajane and Cana. He had the opportunity to meet a lot of the members in the guild, yet he hadn't met everyone. There were still a lot of people out on jobs. And unfortunately for him, Laxus _still_ hadn't come back so that he could kick his ass. Mira and Cana had suggested that he let it go, but he was too stubborn to dream of doing something like that. It went against his code of honor. It was plain as day in his code: kick punk-asses asses. _Especially_ move-stealing punk-asses.

It was around nine in the morning when Naruto emerged from the guild's showers. He slipped back into the same clothing that he had gotten from Porlyusica. They were comfy, however, it was starting to wear on him that he still hadn't gotten any new clothes since he arrived, or gone on any missions. Perhaps today would be the day to take a job and get some money for clothes and to start paying back his tab. He wandered up the stairs from the basement where the showers were located. He walked over to the request board to see if anything caught his eye. He started reading over the requests, eyeing some of the bigger rewards, yet not taking any of them. He happened to glance at a mission with a small reward, yet had a destination that was close to where the cave where he was raised and trained in was. He reached out to take it, only to grasp it at the same time as a smaller, petite hand did. He looked over and saw someone else he considered his friend, petite, little Levy McGarden. Her attire was composed of a yellow bikini top with a green vest that enhanced her small bust along with a pair of capri pants and a pair of sneakers. Her hair was pulled back away from her face with a yellow ribbon. The little bluenette and he had hit it off after talking with her over a book that she was reading.

"Oh! Naruto, I didn't see you," she said as she let go of the paper and Naruto pulled it off the board. "I see you wanted an easy job to do as well. Oh well, you can have it."

"Wait, Levy," Naruto said quickly before she could walk away, "you can have it," he extended his hand out to her.

The small woman shook her head violently, "No, no, no! I couldn't! You got it first, I'll just find something else," she released a sigh, "even if I have to take those two idiots along with me."

"What's wrong with Jet and Droy?" Naruto asked perplexed.

"They're being insufferable! They've been wanting to go on harder and harder missions, but I'm not that physically strong, and I can't fight like they can. I'm best suited for mental jobs," Levy commented to the taller blonde. "I figured I would take an easy, solo job just to get away from them for a day or so."

Naruto nodded his head in understanding. He looked back down at the piece of paper, before looking back at her, "You wanna come along? I only wanted to take this one since it was close to where I needed to go. You can even have all of the pay, what do you say?"

Levy's eyes widened as her hands started waving erratically in the air in front of her, "Uh, th-that's okay, I don't need the money! But I'll come keep you company!"

Naruto just shook his head at her. She was such a funny one, very cute and quirky. He and Levy then made their way to the bar where Mira was standing. He waited to see if she was going to attack him like she did every day since the one time that he purred. Every day, without fail, she would grab him around his shoulders, holding him to her chest and then proceed to try and get him to purr by softly stroking his cheek. And every day, without fail, he would let out a purr. And that would start a fight with another friend that Naruto had made, Mirajane's brother, Elfman. Despite his assurance that he wasn't putting the moves on his sister, Elfman would still get protective of her and they would end up brawling across the floor. Of course, Naruto would end up victorious. He might've been outmatched in size and weight, but he more than made up for it in sheer strength and speed. Despite his slender size, he was a body of hard, defined, chorded muscles. Elfman came to respect the smaller blonde after Naruto had overpowered him and put him into a submission hold. It was definitely the most unique way he had made a friend.

As Naruto approached Mira, he was wary and on guard. He knew she was going to strike, he just didn't know when. Watching her closely for any sudden movements, he held out the job request before him to her. She smiled at him and accepted the job request.

"This seems like too easy of one for someone of your power, Naruto," she remarked before setting it down on the counter before her.

"Well, it's on the way to where I want to go, so I figured I would knock two birds out with one stone. Besides, Levy wanted to do an easy one, and we both reached for this one, so we'll keep each other company on the trek," he said, still giving her the stink eye.

Mira turned to Levy, seeing her for the first time, and smiled, "Ah, I see. Need a break from your team?"

Levy's shoulders slumped and she let out an exhausted sigh, "Ugh, you have no idea."

Mira giggled before reaching down beneath the counter top, her sudden movement caused Naruto to flinch and jump backwards a couple feet. This just made Mira and Levy stare at him in confusion. The blonde's face flushed before pointing an accusing finger at Mira, "Don't you act like you don't know why I did that!"

Mira only smiled serenely at him, "I have no idea what you mean." This caused Levy to giggle at Naruto's antics, which only served to make him blush even more.

Mira just reached down and brought up the ledger used to mark down which jobs were currently underway and who was taking it. She then reached down and retrieved a small piece of paper. The only thing written on it was a single address, she extended it out to Naruto who walked up and took it. "Just go there, the client will give you the delivery that he wants made, then you're off!" she said with a smile.

Naruto just looked down at the address in his hands, before slowly turning around, "Okay, we'll see you tomorrow evening then."

"Oh, and Naruto?" Mira called, stopping him from taking a step, his eyes widened in horror as to what was about to happen. Her arms lashed out, grabbing him firmly, before pulling him back into her soft chest, and rubbing her cheek against his, which despite all his effort, still caused him to purr loudly, attracting the attention of Elfman.

"Oi!" wrestling Mira's arm off his shoulders, he grabbed Levy around the waist as he bolted through the doors of Fairy Tail.

"Kyaaaaaah!" came Levy's frightened scream as Naruto moved at high speed to avoid the inevitable brawl that would break out between him and Elfman.

* * *

It hadn't taken long to get the package that they had to deliver to a small hamlet in the country, so after six hours of walking, Levy and Naruto were making pretty good time. They would stop and rest for about five to ten minutes every hour, but at the pace they were going, Naruto knew that they would make it to the hamlet just before nightfall. That would give them plenty of time to find a place to bed for the night, then in the morning they could make their way to the cave in which Naruto had lived for twelve years of his life.

"So, after we drop this off, where is it that we're going to be going?" Levy asked the blonde **Dragon Slayer**. Naruto smiled back at the little blue-haired woman.

"It's the cave in which I was raised and trained in my **Dragon Slayer** techniques."

"What're we going to find there?" Levy questioned.

"Dunno," Naruto answered truthfully. "Well, there'll be a ton of things: a lot of gold and jewelry, precious stones, magical weapons, books, and maybe even some artifacts."

"Books?" Levy asked with a gleam in her eye at this. "Do you know what kind of books?"

Naruto thought for a few minutes, "All I can remember is that they're very old and rare. Other than that, nothing." He could practically see the excitement exuding off of her. "Also, since I don't think he'll be back for a long time, you can go ahead and take any of them that you might want."

Her face lit up with such intensity, that it almost blinded him, "Really?! Any book that I want? What if I want all of them?"

Naruto just chuckled, "Take as many of them as you want. They should be in pretty good condition. The air in there is always warm and dry, so they shouldn't have any mold, mildew, or water damage."

"Stop teasing me with the thought of these books! It's not fair, we'll get to them tomorrow morning," Levy commanded as the taller blonde chuckled at her fidgeting.

The rest of their journey continued on rather quickly, the entire time was spent just chatting about all that the other could come up with, and before either of them knew it, they had reached their first destination. Naruto pulled out the package from the backpack that he borrowed from the guild and held it in his hand as they passed into the store where the client was.

Inside, they were greeted by a magic shop. It was small, but there were quite a number of interesting things for sale. Behind a glass counter was a very old man. He was bald, had a deeply wrinkled old face, he had a gnarled walking cane and a hunch in his back. He was dressed in muted colors, almost like he was a fixture in here himself.

"Oh, visitors, we don't get many of you up here. Please feel free to look around," his voice was very soft and gravelly.

"Actually, we're here on business," Naruto said, noticing that Levy had already gone and was browsing the books on the shelves on one entire wall. "We're mages of Fairy Tail, and we were contracted to bring you a package."

The old man's eyebrows rose a little bit, "A package… Ah yes, you must mean from my son. Do bring it here, lad."

Naruto walked up to the old man and handed him the small package. With old, calloused hands he started to tear off the brown wrapping on the outside of the package. After getting it open, the box lid was easily disposed of, exposing the contents within. One was a small recording lacrima, probably with only enough space to record a short movie message. The other was a small envelope that was enclosed. Naruto watched as he pumped a little bit of magic power into the lacrima, neither was surprised when a three dimensional image was displayed of a man with grayed hair, that Naruto recognized as the man who placed the job order. Naruto then turned his head away, not wanting to intrude on the old man's private business.

"Hi dad," the image said. "We're sending this to you, with good news and bad news. The bad news is that this year, we won't be able to make it up to visit you. Business has been a little slow, and sadly, we had to dip into the vacation fund. But we'll try and get up there to visit you as soon as we can. But anyway, here's the good news," he turned and looked somewhere away, when he turned back around, there was a baby in his arms, and the old man gasped and a tear escaped his eye. "Guess what! You're a GREAT-grandpa now!" the baby in his arms cooed and giggled at something out of the visual range of lacrima. "Yep, this is baby Ryder, named after his great-grandpa. You have Josh to thank for that."

They both watched as the baby was handed off to someone off screen, and the man turned back to the old man. "I bet you're wondering why I sent the package with some mages instead of just mailing it to you. Well, in that envelope are some of my research notes. I think that I may have finally found 'it'," this caused the old man's eyes to widen. "I don't think that they're safe here, so I'm sending them to you so far out of the way it would be the last place anyone would look. We'll come pick them up when we come and visit next."

Then, the lacrima went dark, its time having been spent. Naruto tried to make it not too obvious that he had heard everything. He continued to pretend to be interested in what he was looking at on the shelves, yet his mind was already coming up with wild things that this mysterious 'it' could be. Whatever it was, it must have been important to the old man, seeing as how he visibly reacted when it was mentioned. Naruto really wanted to ask what 'it' was, but knew better. Damn, it was tearing him up not knowing things. He hated not knowing.

"I'm sorry for the wait," the old man called to the two mages. Both of the Fairy Tail mages smiled at him, letting him know that it wasn't a problem. "Please, for bringing me great news like this, pick out anything in the store. Free of charge!"

Naruto started waving his hands in front of his body protesting, "We couldn't possibly do that! I mean, we didn't even know what we were delivering. We were just doing what we were contracted to."

"We wouldn't feel right taking something that supports your livelihood," Levy added her two cents, not feeling right taking something for free.

"Nonsense, consider it the recipient's part of the mission payment," the old man smiled at the two. The two shared a look before Naruto just offered the girl a shrug. He then proceeded to browse the wares, looking at anything and everything. He walked up to the display counter, silently looking. His eye was caught by a silver ring with a clear stone, maybe a lacrima, set into it. It was simple, and didn't look too expensive.

"I'll take that ring," Naruto proclaimed pointing at it. The old man reached into the case and pulled out the simple ring.

"A magic-storing ring? You sure that's all you want?" the old man looked confused at the blonde **Dragon Slayer**. Naruto only smiled and nodded at the man. He just shrugged, "Okay, then."

Naruto put the small ring on and started pouring magic into the ring. He kept pouring, not noticing any sort of sign that the ring was getting full. "Why isn't it getting full? It's only a small ring, it shouldn't hold that much energy."

"It's been reinforced with runes, making the lacrima hold many times more than just a single spell's worth of magic. It will glow a color that reflects your magic when it's full," the old man informed Naruto. Naruto returned to the task of fueling the magic ring with renewed vigor. The amount that he was flowing into the ring was enough to make it start to spark due to his lightning nature. Finally, after nearly a minute later and a good chunk of his supply down, the gem started to glow electric blue giving off a fairly bright light. With a smile he turned to Levy to show her his new ring, only to see her with a stack of books in her arms and a sad frown on her face.

"I haven't read these yet, and I can't choose," Levy's soft voice carried over her cargo. Naruto's only reaction was to sweat drop at her plight. He then just shook his head in disbelief at her antics before going to see if she wanted his assistance.

* * *

The next morning found the two Fairy Tail mages waking in the early morning light, in a small clearing in the woods. The two had spent too long in the magic shop the evening before, and the only place that would rent out a room had closed up for the night, forcing the pair to make camp, and have a nice meal of some rabbits that Naruto had hunted up. Levy had apologized, but Naruto had waved her off saying that he preferred to sleep outside, it was how he had done it the last six years. After a refreshing breakfast of some wild berries that hadn't been seen the night before, the two continued on their journey to the cave that was only about an hour out from where they were. Levy's excitement was easily spotted. Despite her staying up so late that she fell asleep reading, she was super excited for the treasures that waited for them ahead.

Having arrived at Naruto's destination, he called a halt to the walking. Levy looked around in excitement. Her sentiment quickly changed to confusion, "I don't see any cave…"

"Of course not. Would it be a secret dragon's hoard if it was easily seen?" Naruto asked while walking up to a huge boulder. He walked to the left-hand side of it, and placed both of his arms against the stone. His muscles noticeably bulged and strained as with a cry of exertion, he started to push the boulder out of the way. Levy watched in stunned silence at the display. It would take an amazing amount of strength to move the boulder, and it showed just how physically strong the blonde was.

"Just how strong are you?" Levy asked in awe at his physical prowess.

Naruto just chuckled and rubbed the back of his head, "Well, strong enough to move that, evidently. But to answer your question, I'm not quite sure."

"That's taking not knowing your own strength to a whole new level," Levy sighed.

"Never mind that," Naruto said. "Let's head inside."

Levy nodded, following the blonde with a smile of anticipation. Stepping through the doorway into the blackness of the cave didn't do her first impression justice. It was only when Naruto started throwing lightning bolts all over the place that it started to be seen. Each bolt hit a different lacrima, thus lighting the entirety of the cave in a bright blue-white glow. It was then that Levy's eyes widened in wonder and amazement. The cave was hundreds of feet across, and who knew how deep. That wasn't what was so impressive. It was the small mountain of gold, silver, jewels, weapons, antiques, and so many other things that couldn't be named that stared at her.

"So, this is the place that I called home for twelve years of my life. What do you think?" Naruto asked his small companion. He saw her jaw go slack at the amount of stuff that was in the cave. "It's not really that impressive…"

"Are you kidding?!" Levy screamed up into his face, having to get up on her tip toes to even be able to do that. "With all this you could buy an entire country! And still have enough to pay everyone in it! You could be a king with this!"

Naruto scratched his head and gave an awkward smile, "Yeah, but I don't need much to live on. Just enough for a roof over my head, food in my belly, and maybe a little bit left over for a few trinkets and baubles. I'm a simple kind of man, it doesn't take much to keep me happy. Nothing in the world beats a few drinks with good friends."

Levy just stared at the young man in awe. It made her happy to hear that, knowing that some people were just that humble and genuine made her day. She walked up to Naruto and wrapped her arms around his waist in a hug, and leaned her head against his chest. "You're a really good guy, you know that, Naruto?"

Naruto slowly returned the hug, "Uh, thanks, Levy. You're not so bad yourself," he replied awkwardly.

Levy released him from the hug and gave him a bright, beaming smile, "So, where're those books at?"

Naruto jerked his left thumb to the right, "There's a small antechamber over there," he punctuated it with another toss of a lightning bolt that zoomed through the air, before banking around a corner, culminating in the same blue-white light coming from the room. He watched Levy squeal before darting off to the new light source. She rounded the corner, and her footsteps came to an abrupt halt, a soft gasp could be heard by Naruto through the door way.

"Holy cow! Look at them all!" came her soft voice, only really loudly. It brought a smile to the blonde's face to hear that. It always made him feel good when his friends were happy. He then proceeded to turn to the horde in front of him and let out a small chuckle.

"Well, master… You move your ass of old, you lose your gold," he smirked before hanging his head in exasperation. "You taught me many things, but the art of poetry was not one of them."

He then took off the backpack before walking up to the pile and started shoving handfuls of random coins into it. When it was about half full, he paused, looking at it. "Hmmm…" then he continued shoveling more in, finally stopping when it was three-quarters full. Nodding in satisfaction, he closed up the pack before testing the weight of the bag. It weighed around thirty kilograms, yet didn't feel that way to him. He was more worried about the bottom bursting or the shoulder straps snapping. He looked around the chamber, his eyes landing on a rather comical sight. Levy had donned a backpack, and that backpack was several pounds heavier than it had been. The evidence was clear by the very boxy shape: it was jam-packed full of books. That wasn't the funny part though, the funny part was that it was hard for the petite woman to stand; the weight of the books was too much for her. Naruto couldn't help it, a snort escaped his nose, trying to hold in his laughter. Of course, this caused the bluenette to narrow her eyes at Naruto.

"It's your fault for telling me you had no limits on how many books that I could have!" she shouted at him. Her eyes widened in surprise as the weight of the backpack counter-balanced her, dragging her back to the ground, which wasn't very far on the arc that it traveled. Her feet remained planted on the ground, yet she was staring at the ceiling of the cave. Now, Naruto wasn't holding in his laughter. The sight was way too much for the blonde.

"Oh man! That's too funny!" he crowed as he gasped for breath.

"Yes, yes, very funny. Now come here and help me!" Levy cried in frustration.

Naruto made his way over to the downed girl, and grabbed the top handle of the pack, pulling it, and the petite woman to the correct, upright position. He looked at the girl, then at the bag, and then back to Levy, and it was like a light went off in his head, "Hey, slip out of that pack for a minute. I got an idea."

Levy did as he asked, and slipped the straps from her shoulders and turned to face him as he set his own pack and hers to the ground. "What's your plan?"

"Well, you said that you specialize in **Solid Script** magic, but you also know runes, right?" he asked, getting a nod in response. "I had this technique that I was practicing, that's how I fell from the sky, see?" he asked again. Without getting a response, he started to jump up a stalagmite until he reached the top of it. "I was actually trying to use it to fly, but I still have to tweak it a bit. Right now, it only lets me glide," and with that, he leapt from the stalagmite, his arms were surrounded in blue electricity, and it slowed his descent to the ground a good bit. So much so that he was able to maneuver around a few stalactites and eventually drop to the ground next to Levy, who was in awe at his newly revealed technique. "So, I figured, maybe you can make a containment rune or something, and then I could charge it with my **Static Thrusters** and we could travel comfortably, without the weight of the bags to distract us."

Levy thought about it for a moment before posing a question to Naruto, "But won't it put a drain on your reserves?"

"Nah, it's so minimal that I don't even feel it," Naruto responded, assuaging her worries.

"Then, yeah, I should be able to do it," she replied as she rifled through a couple books that were in a small satchel that she carried on her, pulling out one on runes, along with a few sheets of paper and a quill that never ran out of ink. "This might take some time, I'm nowhere near the level of runemaster as Freed. I'm also nowhere near as elegant with my runes as he is."

"Take all the time you need," Naruto smiled at the energetic woman.

* * *

It took longer than expected for Levy to actually make the containment runes, and it took even more time allowing Naruto to charge them with his **Static Thrusters**, but it was worth it, because now their packs weighed a fraction of their original weight. They had lost three hours for the comfort of travel, and neither could complain. After replacing the boulder back over the entrance to the den, Naruto had suggested that they should head back towards the town that they had delivered the package to. Naruto had seen a shop and was looking to get some different clothes. The return trip was interrupted by Naruto stopping Levy after only forty minutes of walking. He took a deep whiff of the air around him, before his eyes widened. "Smoke. There's been a fire! Let's hurry."

With that, he scooped Levy up in his arms, having removed her bag, and slinging it alongside his on his shoulder. He charged his legs with his lightning and they shot off at incredible speeds. What would have taken them around another half hour of walking, took only three minutes. The cause of the smoke was evident. The small shop that they he'd delivered their package to was just smoldering, blackened beams and wall studs. Just about everyone in the hamlet and the surrounding area was there. They were all stunned, seeing the destruction of one of their own businesses. He walked up to one of the nearest people, clapping his hand on his shoulder to get his attention.

"Who are you? What do you want?" the man asked in confusion.

"We're Fairy Tail mages, we just delivered a package to the owner of that shop, is he okay?" Naruto asked, concerned.

The man just jerked his thumb over his shoulder at a tent. "He's in there, but I don't know how much longer he'll make it. It's impressive that a man his age was able to take down a couple of his attackers. They're in there too."

"Thank you," Naruto nodded to the man. He glanced at Levy, seeing her shocked and sad expression. It was clear that she hadn't experienced the atrocities of man very often. "You might not want to come with me into the tent. We don't know what we'll find, and it might be pretty gruesome."

Levy just nodded and shook her pack off her shoulders, setting it on the ground next to the entrance of the tent, next to Naruto's. "I'll just watch our stuff and see if I can't find anything out from the other townspeople."

Naruto nodded and entered the tent. The smell of burnt skin and hair was overpowering. It was one of the times that his enhanced senses were doing him in. It took a second for his eyes to adjust to the lower lighting. Inside, there were four beds. Three were covered in white sheets, hiding the bodies that lay beneath them. The fourth bed had a group of people around it, one evidently the town doctor, judging by the bag he was closing up, and his blood-stained clothes. Naruto walked up to the man, talking in a soft tone. "I'm Naruto Namikaze, mage of Fairy Tail. My guildmate and I just delivered a package to the old man at the shop yesterday. Can you tell me what happened?"

The doctor look at Naruto with a tired expression. "From the reports, a group of five people attacked the magic shop. They say that they heard shouting from inside, and the sounds of things being broken, before screams. Then, after a few minutes, two people walked out, and one of them set the place on fire, leaving all inside to be consumed by the flames. What they didn't expect was the response to the event, the fires were doused pretty quickly, and everyone inside was pulled out. Only the owner survived."

"Is he going to be alright?" Naruto asked.

His response was a shake of the head, "He's still clinging to life, but I don't know for how much longer. He inhaled hot ash, his lungs are failing quickly. He also lost his left arm, and burns cover seventy percent of his body. It's amazing that he is still alive."

Naruto's eyes widened in surprise at the hell the old man was put through. He glanced around the doctor to the shopkeeper. He was covered in bandages, and it was obvious he was in pain. He walked past the doctor, and stood at the old man's bed side. The old man's eyes widened, feeling Naruto's magical presence next to him.

"It's… you," he said, his voice was hoarse, and soft.

"Yeah, it's me," Naruto informed him, seeing that both of his eyes were unseeing, having been blinded in the attack. He saw the man gesturing for him to lean in closer, so Naruto did. He was surprised when his bandaged arm shot up, and grabbed the collar of his shirt, pulling his ear next to his mouth.

"Th-they're after… it," his voice was strained, due to the overwhelming pain he was in. "Th-the… the… It must be… protected. They… need to be… stopped. At all costs." After saying this, he started hacking, his grip letting Naruto escape his dry, heaving gasps. He then started speaking again, "Te-tell my-my family… Te-tell them… Tell them…" and like that he was gone.

Naruto stood back up to his full height. He looked down at the old man, his unseeing eyes, wide, a look of fear present in them. He placed his hand over them, sliding them shut, and making him look like he was at peace. Naruto knew that he wouldn't be until he found those that were responsible for the attack, and made them pay and found whatever 'it' was. It must have been powerful, seeing as it drove people to kill for it.

"Reports! I need reports," Naruto called out to everyone in the tent, which included the doctor and two women who looked like they were with the doctor.

"On what?" the doctor asked with a frown.

"Everyone on the beds," Naruto said, pulling the sheets from the three bodies that occupied the other ones. His eyes flashed over the other three bodies in the room. Taking in all of their injuries, that he could see.

"The first one dead, was this one," the doctor said, pointing at the bed right next to the old man's. "We believe that Ryder-san was the one that struck the killing blow to this one. He has this impact of a spell," he said, pointing to his chest, which was caved in, "Ryder-san was one to mix spells with physical attacks, so it seems that he caused this man's chest to cave in. He died rather slowly due to asphyxiation from punctured lungs."

"This one was the next to die," one of the women informed Naruto, pointing at the next bed. "He put up a fight, judging by the defensive blows, as well as the skinned knuckles. His hands are a perfect match to some of the wounds inflicted upon Ryder-san. But, it seems that Ryder- san was able to retaliate, his sternum was shattered, and his heart was ejected from a blow that caused it to become a projectile. It hasn't been recovered," she finished for Naruto.

"Now it becomes a little hazy, it seems that this last man was not killed by Ryder-san," the second woman turned to Naruto. "The only physical defect that resembles anything of Ryder-san's is his shattered knee. It's hard to tell from the burned tissue, but it was bruised and moves freely in any direction. This person was not walking away from the attack."

The doctor cleared his throat before continuing, "It seems that after that last attack of Ryder-san's, he was incapacitated. It wasn't long after he was incapacitated that he lost his arm."

"Was that recovered?" Naruto asked with a frown, his mind processing all the information he had been given so far.

The doctor nodded, "It was in pieces. Not all the fingers were accounted for. His other hand's fingers were all broken, as well as the forearm. Whoever did it, showed no hesitation. It was deliberate and meant to cause immense pain."

"A sadist," Naruto's eyes narrowed. His eyes locked on the third corpse of the attackers. "I think the same man who did that to the old man is also the one who inflicted those lacerations on this one. A punishment? Or was it a lesson?"

"I can't say anything of the person's mental state," the doctor informed Naruto.

"These, wounds, his being a sadist, what does that tell me," Naruto mumbled to himself. His mind was racing a mile a minute, yet couldn't come up with what he was missing.

"They were also all branded with the same symbol," the second woman with the doctor told Naruto, showing him what it looked like. It looked like a rat's skull with what looked like stiletto blades as the front teeth.

"Thank you," Naruto told the three medical people. With a final glance at the old man, he exited the tent. He found Levy nowhere in sight. It was okay because it gave him time to think. He was missing a piece of the puzzle. What was missing? The cuts seemed to be deliberate. Each one was precise, inflicting the most pain. He was also the one who broke the old man's arm and fingers. He didn't even know the purpose of them, by the time that those injuries were inflicted, his other arm was already gone, they probably already had what they wanted. So why did he do that?

It hit Naruto like a ton of bricks, "He was proud of his work. That means he would want to see it again. He's still here!" his eyes flew across the background, looking at people who were watching the tent intently. No, he would be able to see inside. He would have a vantage point to see into one of the tent's windows. His eyes flew to the surrounding trees. He was here, and he was up in one of them, and when he found him, he would-

"Found you," Naruto whispered, eyes landing on the man in question. He was tall, his hair was white, long on the left side, and shaved on the right side of his head. His clothes were all black, with leather straps criss-crossing his chest. On his back was a weapon. A sword. As Naruto spent time analyzing him, it seemed the man had caught Naruto's scrutiny of him and decided to bolt for it by jumping to the ground. "Oh no you don't!" the blonde roared as lightning surged into his legs. With a mighty push, he was running towards his target. Without warning, Naruto lashed out with a left haymaker as he reached his target. The target in question reacted by spinning out of Naruto's reach, the arcing sparks of his **Gigawatt Blade** making his hair raise to follow the hand. Digging his feet into the ground, Naruto slid a few feet before rounding out, and facing the fleeing mage in question.

The odd man gave Naruto a creepy grin, noting the hatred brewing within Naruto's eyes. "My, my… What do we have here? A little legal guild lackey, perhaps?"

"Damn straight," Naruto confirmed, standing in a ready stance, his feet spaced apart evenly, his knees bent in a reflexive stance, his arms hung at his sides, blue electricity surging through them, his fingers twitching in anticipation.

"Oh my, what could a legal guild want with someone like me?" the man questioned, bringing his left hand up and brushing the hair from in front of his face away, only to have it fall back where it was.

Naruto's eyes narrowed, "Don't play that bullshit game. You know why. What reason did you have?"

"I'm afraid I have no idea what you're talking about," he responded coyly, his eyes opening a bit, and Naruto seeing their pink color.

"Stop playing games!" Naruto commanded, a surge of electricity crackling off of him. "Why would you attack an old man like that? What do you have to gain from torturing him? And your own comrade as well!"

The man's eyes closed again, and a prideful grin stretched across his face, "You like my handiwork?"

"I'm tired of playing your games! Tell me who you are, and where your base is located, dark guild roach," Naruto hurled the insult at the man. He noticed that he was receiving a look from the man now, no emotion was displayed however.

"Roach, you say?"

Naruto smirked, noticing he hit a chord in the man, "You heard right. You dark guilds are all like roaches. You scurry around in the dark, spreading your disease and filth, only until someone turns on the light and you flee back to the hole that you came from."

Naruto watched as the man reached behind his back and pulled off the sword. It was an odd blade. There was no guard, and it tapered dramatically, yet was all uniform in its shrinking along its length, which was easily four and a half feet. There were many nicks and dings as well as scratches along the blade. It was also rusted in spots, showing that it was used much and cared for little. On the end he could see the fresh-dried blood of his latest victims. He raised the sword so that it was perpendicular to his body and he was pointing it at Naruto. "Why don't you see if you can beat me, little light mage? Then I'll tell you all that you want to know."

"It would please me to no end," Naruto growled. His arms, still crackling, he sprang forward, swinging his right fist at the mage. The sword-wielder moved to slash at Naruto, only to have his eyes widen as Naruto suddenly appeared within his guard, his fist impacting into the swordsman's chest. The dark mage backpedaled lessening the force of the blow, yet getting a shock from Naruto anyway. The man in black rolled to his left, bringing his sword arm to bear on Naruto, who ducked out of the way and rolled to his left. As he completed his roll, he launched a bolt of lightning at the mage, which struck him in the elbow of his right arm.

"Agh!" the swordsman cried out as his arm spasmed and he dropped his sword. His swung low and back around to his right, catching his sword just before it hit the ground with his left hand. Both fighters stared at each other for a moment before both exploded into motion. It seemed that the man in black was significantly better with his left hand, as his movements were more precise and executed at a faster pace than before. Naruto was able to dance around all of his strikes, but they were quick enough that he wasn't able to retaliate. "What's the matter, light-boy? Does this roach have you on your laurels like the dog you are?!"

Naruto went to dodge another swipe of the sword when his left foot slipped and he lost his traction, "Shit!"

"Die!" the swordsman screamed as he capitalized on Naruto's off balance stance and unpreparedness to unleash a powerful strike. What he didn't expect was for Naruto to lash out with his fist and bat the blade out of the way with the back of his hand, and simultaneously hurl a glowing orb of electricity at the slender man's chest where it stuck. The orb detonated in a brilliant explosion of electricity, the shockwave of which sent both combatants tumbling away from each other.

Naruto ended up tumbling across the dirt, before connecting with a tree rather harshly, that knocked the air from his lungs for a minute, but he received no damage from his own attack. The black-dressed swordsman was a different story, the detonation had blown up on him, sending untold volts through his system, his muscles were in spasms, while his motor skills were temporarily hampered. He lay on the ground groaning, his chest covered in electrical burns, and his upper body was now exposed, the explosion having shredded his clothing. Both were on the ground trying to recover faster than their opponent.

As it so happened, Naruto recovered a second before the swordsman, allowing him to pounce upon the still struggling dark mage. With his opponent restrained beneath him, Naruto unleashed his fury at the man below him. With fists crackling with lightning, he landed blow after blow to the dark mage's face, each eliciting a cry of pain. After a few good, solid hits, he planted his hands on his shoulders and sent a current of electricity through the dark mage's body. The action elicited a pained yell from the man, but it was cut short as Naruto stopped.

"'You like my handiwork?'" Naruto questioned, mocking his earlier question. It was then that he noticed that his opponent had tears at the corners of his eyes, and it dawned on him, "So you can dish out the pain, but you can't take your own medicine?"

Naruto punctuated his question with another burst of electrical current through the man's body. This caused him to scream out in pain and more tears to fall from his eyes. Naruto looked on, disgusted at the man before him. He hated the fact that he was doing the same action that he performed on the innocent old man as well as his own subordinate.

"You take pride in torturing the weak and wounded, yet when someone comes along to put you in your place you become a sniveling, shell of a human being," Naruto stated.

The white-haired man sniffled and tried to talk through his tears, "P-please, st-st-stooooop."

"Did the old man beg you? How about your subordinate? Why should I show you the same mercy that you didn't show them?" his magic started to flare, when a soft voice caught his attention.

"Because you're better than he is," Levy replied to his question, coming up behind him. Her gaze was hard, yet Naruto could tell that she felt pity for the small, broken man held captive by Naruto. "If you continue, then you're no better than he is. As a member of Fairy Tail, we need to set an example. We need to follow the laws and rules."

Naruto looked at her expression, then turned back to the man pinned below him. He sneered, watching as he gasped and wheezed as he tried to stop his crying. "You're gonna tell me all that I want to know, or else I'll continue, got it?" it was an empty threat, yet the sadist didn't know that. Seeing the man's nod, Naruto started his questioning, "What guild are you from?"

"Demon's Tongue," he answered truthfully, fearful of Naruto's wrath.

"Why did you attack the old man?"

"We heard that he was receiving a package with research containing a powerful artifact," here he had to breathe a few times, he still recovering from his breakdown. "We wanted the location so we could get it for ourselves."

"What is this artifact?"

"It's a book. A powerful one. One that in the right hands can inspire the masses, cause the fall of cities, topple governments, and bring about the destruction of all that we know."

"Why does Demon's Tongue want it?" Naruto asked, a frown marring his face.

"We don't. Tartarus does."

Levy gasped at hearing the name, causing Naruto to turn a questioning gaze on her, "You familiar with that name?"

"Yeah, they're one of the three most powerful dark guilds around. They're considered the strongest of the Balam Alliance," Levy answered Naruto's question.

He turned back to his captive, "Why would Tartarus send Demon's Tongue to do its dirty work?"

"Demon's Tongue is a guild allied with the Balam Alliance. One of Tartarus's main guys came to us with this job. It seems they think it wasn't worth their resources, so they outsourced it to us," the black-clad man replied, finally having his breathing under control.

"One last question," Naruto told the man. "Where can I find Demon's Tongue?"

"They're about five miles to the North-Northwest. The others of my party went on without me, they've probably already reached the hideout and are planning a rendezvous with Tartarus," the swordsman responded. He watched as Naruto processed the information. "I've answered all that you've wanted. Will you let me go?"

Naruto looked back at him, his eyes narrowing in contempt, "No. We're going to tie you up and alert the Rune Knights to you. Then I'm gonna have them come after me, after I've wiped the floor with your dark guild."

With that, he knocked the man unconscious. Naruto then stood up, and grabbed the collar of the unconscious member of Demon's Tongue, and turned to Levy, who looked shaken, having heard all of the information that was relayed. "What are we going to do, Naruto? We can't let them get that book. It could spell disaster for the world."

"We won't," Naruto stated with finality, his eyes conveying the conviction behind his words. "Let's get this guy back to the town so that we can get the Rune Knights here, and we can set off after Demon's Tongue."

Both Fairy Tail mages turned and headed back towards town, dragging their prisoner with them. Levy was the one to break the silence, "We should alert Master Makarov before we head out, he'll want to know what we're up to. He might not even want us to do this. I mean, we're only two members against an entire guild, and one of us isn't that great at fighting."

Naruto turned to Levy, looking at her downtrodden expression. He could see her uncertainty and her unease at the possibility of having to fight. It finally sunk in that she was really not a fighter. This made Naruto frown. Despite his wanting to believe that his comrades could fend for themselves, he was being forced to accept the fact that some of his guild mates were not combat-compatible. Levy just so happened to be one of them. While her heart was in the right place, her mindset wasn't that of a warrior's. "I have to stop them, Levy-chan," Naruto told her. "I can't let them get any closer than they are to the book. If it falls into their hands, it will be very bad."

The small bluenette gazed up at him with a worried expression, "But what will you do once you confront them? The only ones in the guild that could take an entire dark guild on by themselves are Erza, Laxus, Mystogan, and Gildarts. They're all away at the moment. You need reinforcements."

"We don't have time, Levy-chan. By the time anyone got here, we'd be so far behind that we might as well consider the mission failed. If they rendezvous with Tartarus, then that's it. I can't give in that easy. If there are people that need protecting, then that's where I'll be," Naruto said, turning to face the town as they entered the town proper. They gained astounded looks as they pulled their catch through town. Naruto turned to the nearest citizen, voicing his question. "Where's the nearest outpost of Rune Knights?"

"About an hour away, but they just arrived after we sent our reports to them about the attack; they're over by the burnt-out magic shop, doing their own investigation."

Naruto nodded his thanks, and took the dark mage to where the townsperson said the law would be. It was hard not to spot the Rune Knights. They stood out like a lit candle in a dark room, their armor gleaming in the sunlight. One of them noticed Naruto and Levy's approach, signaling to his superior officer of the happening. The man who looked like he was in charge turned toward Naruto, before barking out his orders.

"Halt! This is a crime scene. Identify yourself," he commanded with force in his voice.

Naruto and Levy both stopped, the smaller of the two looking a bit frightened of their presence, "I'm Naruto Namikaze, and this is Levy McGarden, we're Fairy Tail mages, and we happened upon the scene like you did; only I was able to apprehend one of the attackers."

The Knights looked stunned at this information. The commanding officer strode forward, motioning to two of his men to take Naruto's captive. "You have my thanks, friend," the leader said. "I'm Captain Rex of Rune Knight Division Twelve. Were you able to gain any information of what happened?"

Naruto then proceeded to tell him what had transpired since he and Levy had arrived. The captain of the squad looked grim as Naruto informed him of what the dark guild was after. "This is troubling. Sergeant! Contact headquarters at once! We're going to need reinforcements," he barked out to his squad. Turning back to face Naruto, he offered his thanks. "We'll take it from here. Once our reinforcements arrive, we'll head out and confront Demon's Tongue and the agent of Tartarus."

"With all due respect, I think that's a shitty idea," Naruto remarked, causing the captain to shoot him a glare. "By the time your reinforcements get here, they'll be gone. Let me go ahead, I'll vanguard it, and I won't let Tartarus get their hands on the information."

Captain Rex sighed and rubbed his head. "Very well. But if you die, it's on your shoulders, not mine."

Naruto nodded in agreement, before glancing back to Levy. He turned to face the captain once again, "Could you get my friend a communication lacrima? We should really tell our guild what is going on."

The captain nodded, motioning for another soldier to do as requested. Naruto then turned to Levy, her trepidation was very palpable. "Levy, I'm gonna go on ahead. We can't let them get away."

Levy looked worried at the idea, "But, Naruto, this is only one man against an entire dark guild."

"I know. I'll be alright," Naruto smiled at the petite woman. Levy didn't look so convinced.

"What if something bad happens and you're hurt and all alone in the dark guild? You'll be hurt and beaten, or worse!" tears were beginning to gather in the corners of her eyes. "We can't lose any more members!"

Levy's eyes widened as she felt two powerful arms encircle her small frame. She turned her head to the side and her cheek came to rest against Naruto's powerful chest. She felt him gently stroke the back of her head, calming her. "I know you're scared. I know that the thought of your friends getting hurt scares you to death. But that won't happen. I'll come back just fine. You have to trust me."

Levy felt calmer at his words, and nodded her head against his chest. He slowly let her go and held her shoulders at arms' length. There were still tears in her eyes, and some tear tracks on her cheeks, yet she looked to be getting better. She raked the back of her arm across her eyes, wiping her tears away, "You promise that you'll come back? That we won't lose you?"

Naruto flashed her a soft smile. "I promise. I'll go on ahead, you stay here and contact Master Makarov. See if he can get anyone to come out here. Hopefully they'll be faster than the Rune Knights."

Levy nodded and watched as Naruto stepped away, nodding at the captain. The captain nodded his head at Naruto. The blonde then turned, as lightning sprang to life around his being and faster than anyone around could follow, Naruto disappeared in a flash of blue. Levy bowed her head, before taking the communication lacrima from the returned knight. "Be careful, Naruto."

* * *

**A/N: So, this was supposed to be out weeks ago. However, I got shifted to twelve-hour nights, and no way to write during these times. Now, I'm back on regular hours, and I should be able to update sooner like I had planned.**

**Drop me a review, if you'd please. Also, more meaningful reviews are more helpful than others. I'll do a better job at replying to them this time than I was last time, so any questions that you would like answered and won't give away the entire plot of my arcs or future happenings, please send them in.**

**Regards,**

**AtheistBear**


	3. With Fangs Bared

**A/N: Here's the next chapter of The Faeries' Lightning Dragon. Please, enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Fairy Tail.**

* * *

**Chapter 3**

With Fangs Bared

It was with great haste that Naruto rushed through the forest. He didn't slow as he weaved around trees, leapt over boulders, and charged through brooks. His face was set in a determined scowl, his brows furrowed in fury. He would not be the one to let evil escape. He would bring down his wrath upon those that would bring harm unto others, and he would feel no remorse in delivering their punishment. His thoughts drifted to his friends and what could happen to them if he let them down. His body seemed to blur even more and static seemed to crackle behind him as he pushed himself faster and harder than before.

It was within only a few more minutes that Naruto broke into a clearing with a dilapidated building that looked like a church standing within. There was an overgrown and unattended graveyard nearby that confirmed the building's identity as a church. Most of the headstones and grave markers were old and worn down by the elements, some having crumbled from overgrowth or vandalism. From within he could feel many presences. Each of them contained magical power flowing through them, and all of them seemed to have a fair amount; less than that of the swordsman that he fought just a little bit ago, but still a good amount.

He cracked his knuckles in preparation for his assault and charged the front doors. With electricity crackling across his knuckles, he slammed his fist into the old, wooden doors. With an explosion of magical energy, the doors imploded into the church, flying off their hinges and colliding with a few unsuspecting mages as they continued on their path. Surprised cries and screams filled the air as the light burst through with the doors. Many people had to cover their eyes so that they could see into the light.

"Who the hell did that?!" a random member screamed, his rat skull guild stamp showing on his left cheek.

As if shrouded in a halo, Naruto strode through the doorway, the light giving him an almost ethereal glow. As he stepped into where the light wasn't shining so brightly, Demon's Tongue got their first look at the man who would bring the full weight of his wrath down upon them. Sparks jumped from him to random metal pieces around him as his power boiled within. He stopped his approach and leveled a finger at the entire guild. "I want answers, Demon's Tongue, and I'm going to get it."

In response to his declaration, a brave or stupid mage shouted from the back, "Fuck you!"

Naruto lowered his hand before smirking, "I knew you'd say that." With a burst of speed, he appeared, with his fist buried in some poor sap's face. After the realization of what had transpired set in, chaos broke loose.

* * *

Levy stood in the Rune Knight's tent, hers and Naruto's packs acting as a seat as she sat staring into a magical projection of Mirajane, who was listening as Levy recounted the events leading up to when Naruto had left.

"So what do I do now, Mira? I don't want to leave Naruto alone and without backup," Levy said with a worried expression across her cute face.

Mira didn't respond, letting her thoughts run. She looked like she was going to speak before she looked to her left, "Oh! Master, thank goodness you're back. We have a situation."

Levy heard Makarov's voice, "Did something happen with Levy's team?"

"No, Levy and Naruto went on a delivery mission, and it turns out a dark guild has intertwined themselves with it," Mirajane said, giving Makarov the short version. Suddenly, Mira's face vanished as Makarov's concerned visage occupied the hologram.

"What happened, Levy-chan? Are you alright? Where's Naruto?" Makarov asked, being the concerned parent-type that he was.

"We're fine, Master," Levy replied. "A dark guild attacked the person we delivered the package to. Evidently it was research on the whereabouts of a powerful magic artifact, a book I think it was."

Makarov's eyes looked grim. "Levy, I want you and Naruto to stay put. I'll have Erza head your way, and she'll take care of this dark guild."

Levy started to chuckle nervously before scratching the back of her head in embarrassment, "Well… Uh, there's a teeny, tiny little problem with that. You see, Naruto actually ran ahead. He said that he couldn't let them get away with what they had done."

It was silent in the tent for a few seconds as Levy watched Makarov process that bit of information. Slowly, red started to seep into his face as his eyebrows drew together. The entire image started to shake as Makarov cried out, "HE DID WHAT?!" and with a flash of light, the other end of the transmission went silent.

Levy stared at the communication lacrima for a few minutes more before stowing it in her satchel. She slumped back into the make-shift chair. Her shoulders slumped as she was ordered to just simply wait again. Wait for rescue to come and get her. It really annoyed her that she wasn't as strong as others, but at the same time, she didn't know what could be done to help her out. She thought to Naruto and how he just reacted. Not even giving a thought to his own personal safety, only that of others. He was a truly virtuous person. Maybe she would ask him to help her better herself. It was a good idea. They both would better themselves when they got home after Erza got there.

Levy suddenly froze up at the thought that Erza was going to be their backup. Suddenly, running off and getting mangled by a dark guild was sounding like a better option than facing Erza. With a groan of suffering to come, she reached into her pack that held the books she took from the cave and started reading it. Oh well, if she was going to get punished, she'd at least like to go out while doing her favorite hobby.

* * *

Naruto stood in the dark guild's hall; his eyes looked down at the mass of broken bodies down below. Some of them were unconscious, others simply unable to move. But they were all alive; this would leave them in perfect arresting condition. He had gleaned through his chaotic battle that their stronger members had left to go retrieve the artifact in their magic-driven cart. He scowled. Now he had no idea where these guys had left to. He had to find a clue, but first he needed new clothes.

He was missing his shirt; it had gotten torn off by a guy who thought that grappling him would be a good idea. Of course when his guild stamp on his shoulder had been revealed, even more hell had broken out. His pants below his knees had been scorched off, and his legs had slight burns on them from a massive fireball that he blocked with his **Polarity Shield**. He didn't have any idea where his sandals had disappeared off to. So, before he was heading out, he was stealing some clothes from the dark guild. He went to where he thought their bunks were in the basement of the church. Sure enough, there were bunk beds with wardrobes and footlockers by them. At random, he started rifling through them. He quickly found a pair of navy blue pants that fit, as well as some socks and brown boots. A gray long-sleeved t-shirt finished his ensemble, before he made his way out of the basement.

Stepping out of the old church and into the sunlight, Naruto started his looking for a trail to follow. He rushed around to the back of the church where he discovered a shoddy lean-to with wheel ruts in it. He looked down and followed the tracks out, but soon found that that was a foolish endeavor as there were many separate tracks leading multiple different directions. He sniffed, trying to let his enhanced sense of smell catch the scent of people, but it was futile. They hadn't lingered long enough to set a trail. He then immediately dropped to his knee and placed his hand on one wheel track. It was dry, so he moved on. He repeated this for five more tracks before coming to one that was slightly wetter than the others which meant that it was the most fresh. He looked up and followed the trail to the edge of the woods, where an arching opening made for a good wagon-sized pathway.

With haste, he followed the path for as long as he could, before the trail was lost in the over-growth. He cursed in frustration, and allowed his restless energy to pulse. This had an unintended result, as he was able to see a rough outline of a carriage that was green, heading away from his position, it didn't get too far before it disappeared altogether. He was intrigued by this development, and so tried it again. His experiment proved that it wasn't just coincidence as the same effect happened. With a wry smile, he moved before setting off. He hesitated though, as a thought crossed his mind.

"_If back-up comes, there won't be any way for them to find the path,"_ he mused, before being struck with an idea. _"I'll leave them some breadcrumbs to follow."_

With this thought, he rested his hand on the bark of a nearby tree, before pushing his magic into his hand, allowing his electricity to blast out. This act made some of the bark on the tree explode off, as well as leave a zigzag pattern that resembled a lightning bolt pointing in the direction he was going to head off towards. With a smile on his face, he raced onwards. About every fifty feet or so, he would reach out with his hand as he passed a tree, slapping it against the bark, and leaving another marker for anyone who would be following.

* * *

Levy sighed, as she tried to read one of the books that she had gotten from Naruto. She had been stuck on the same line for the last twenty minutes, not really reading it as her thoughts were elsewhere. She sighed again, and decided to call it quits. There was no way that she would be able to read in this state anyway. Her thoughts were a cacophony of desires, wishes, deprecation, and loathing. She cursed herself for the hundredth time for being as physically and magically weak as she was.

She stood up from her perch on her and Naruto's backpacks, stowing her book in hers before standing and stretching. The little hamlet had calmed down since the Rune Knights had left a half hour ago after their reinforcements had shown up. They had left only scant minutes after Naruto had rushed off. She was alone, and had been instructed to wait for Erza to arrive.

With a wistful smile, she raised her head to the sky and watched the passing clouds, feeling sorry for herself. If only she had been more up to the challenge of going after Naruto, maybe then she wouldn't be so sad for what's happened. It all came back to Naruto. He was a member for merely a week, and already she felt like she had found a life-long friend. The way that he was so sure of himself and his actions had made her feel awkward about herself. She wanted nothing more than to be able to act without thinking like he could. He was the very pinnacle of what it meant to be a Fairy Tail member and it-

Levy's thoughts were halted as the sound of wood grating on gravel and dirt drew her attention. The source of the noise was a magic-powered carriage. Sitting in the drivers' seat was none other than Erza Scarlet, the Titania. She was the most powerful female mage in the guild seeing how Mirajane no longer did missions, or even exercised her S-Rank power. Erza hopped off the carriage, her Heart Kreuz armor glinting in the sunlight, a golden semi-cross and Fairy Tail symbol both adorned her chest plate. Her hands and arms were covered in gauntlets, the same gleaming metal as her armor. Her legs were unadorned besides a pleated skirt and leather boots that came up to her knee. On her hip was a scabbard and sword, easily within reach should she need it. From the get-go, Levy could tell by her expression that she was not happy.

"Where's the Rune Knight Commander?" she barked out at a random person. Said man didn't have any time before he was hauled up off his feet by his collar by the irate red-head. She repeated her question, and when no answer was forthcoming, she started shaking the poor man. "Answer me!"

"Erza! Over here!" Levy called out to her guild-mate and friend, waving her arm for added effect. This served to gain the redhead's attention, who proceeded to promptly drop the man she was holding, and come storming over to her.

"Levy!" she started in her scolding voice. "Why are you alone, where is the new member and the Rune Knights?"

Levy was scared at the tone she was using, having flashbacks of her childhood. "W-Well, you see… Uhm… Naruto ran after the dark guild before the Rune Knights' reinforcements showed up. He said that he couldn't let Demon's Tongue get too far ahead. This is a really powerful artifact that we're dealing with."

Erza frowned before relenting her gaze a bit, yet it was still pretty harsh. "That's very noble," Levy smiled at her declaration, "but very stupid. He's an untested mage, going against who knows how many dark mages. It was very foolish. Plus there's the affiliation with Tartarus that needed to be considered. And furthermore…"

Levy felt that Erza was being too hard on Naruto, especially when he wasn't able to defend himself. With a sudden welling of courage, she snapped at Erza, "That's not fair! You don't even know the guy! He's nice, caring, and strong! You weren't even around when he joined! Master says that Naruto fought equally with Laxus, even beat him."

That caught Erza's attention. She hadn't heard this piece of information. To have fought Laxus as equals, or to have beaten him, that spoke volumes. Maybe there was no need to worry about the new guy. She stared at Levy, trying to see any sort of lying to protect the new guy. Only seeing slight fear in Levy's eyes from standing up to her, she saw no deception of any kind. She let her harsh gaze soften, knowing that even if she has a reputation for order and structure, she couldn't stay mad at the little bluenette.

"Okay, I apologize. It's obvious that this new member is a good friend of yours. But still, it wasn't in the guild's or his best interest to run off without help. Hurry, stash your packs in the carriage and we'll be on our way," Erza said turning to the carriage, but was stopped, mid stride.

"'We'?" Levy asked, her small frame struggling to pick up the pack of books. Her eyes were wide with surprise.

Erza rounded again, "Yes, 'we'. You're in this just as much as our new member. It is a duty of Fairy Tail mages to see out a mission to its end."

"B-b-but I'm… I'm…"

"You're what?"

"I'm weak," Levy looked despondent, having to admit her faults. "I won't be of any use with them. I can't fight!"

Erza walked up to Levy and placed her gauntleted hand on her shoulder, the weight of it almost too much for Levy's petite frame. "No one in Fairy Tail is weak. It doesn't matter whether or not you are physically strong, but the strength of your character. And to everyone back home, you have a very strong character."

Levy felt her face heat up at the praise, it had been a long time since Erza last praised her for anything other than being good and not causing trouble in the guild. It was with a determined nod, she and Erza loaded her and Naruto's packs into the magic-powered carriage and climbed in herself. It was only a few more minutes that they were off, charging in the direction of the Rune Knights and their wayward guild member.

* * *

It was supposed to be a simple job. First they had sacked that magic shop and got the information they needed from the owner. Then the team got back, and without wasting any time, their group, composed of the guild's top members had left, sixteen men strong. It was left to the three men who composed the defensive unit of the guild to guard their rear, and the entrance to the cave as well as their carriage. One of the three's members had been sitting on the carriage, catching flak for reading Sorcerer Weekly.

"Why do you read that crap anyway?" a large, tanned man asked from on the ground. His most defining feature was that he was missing the middle finger on his left hand, besides standing over six and a half feet tall.

"Hey, you gotta admit that these legal guilds have some pretty hot babes in them," the one sitting on the carriage replied. His defining feature was that he was the smallest of the group, and had no hair, but his head was completely covered in tattoos. He also looked a lot like a toad, with a large, wide mouth and squat face. "Oh the things I would do to that Fairy, Mirajane. She has got one delicious body," he said with a bit of drool dripping from the corner of his mouth.

The last member, standing with the really tall man was the last to speak. He was very large with long, muscled arms crossed, and resting on his overly sized gut. A handle for a very large broad-axe rested over his left shoulder, the blade sticking up behind him. "Pretty big talk coming from a VIRGIN," he taunted, putting way more emphasis on the last word than was necessary. He wasn't disappointed when the man on top of the carriage bristled at the barb.

"You're one to talk! You've never been with a woman either!" the toad-like man said.

"It's not like I haven't tried, there's just no women out there who could stand to be around a real man like me," the fat one responded.

"Oh that's rich!" the toad started laughing. Large guffaws in a nasally, high-pitched manner emanating from his wide mouth.

"You wanna go?" the other one responded, drawing his axe into his hands. "I'll make you-"

"Stop," the tallest of the bunch commanded, his eyes searching the tree line.

"Huh? What's happening?" he was questioned by the toad-like man.

The tallest kept scanning the trees, hoping to see something, "I could have sworn I heard something."

This statement made the other two start looking around as well, standing at the ready. Several seconds passed in this fashion, before the man with the axe perked up. "Did you hear that?"

"Hear wha-"

"…'**s Thunder Drop**!"

It was as if a bomb had exploded on the carriage. Before anyone really had a chance to react, a shining blue object fell out of the sky, completely obliterating the carriage and sending the man sitting on it flying through the air like a ragdoll, his entire body engulfed with crackling lightning. He was unconscious before he hit the ground. As the object hit the ground, a crater formed as the kinetic energy behind the blast moved outward. The man with the axe fell next, the gust of wind from the epicenter, picking the flat of his blade up, causing it to impact his head with extreme force, instantly rendering him unconscious. The tallest of the group had reacted just barely, throwing up a magical barrier, dampening the effect somewhat, but he was not spared the technique's power.

Groaning in pain, the tall man looked at his comrades, both were down for the count. It was such a powerful attack. He looked at the scattered wreckage that was his guild's carriage. There was no way they would be getting it back together again. He looked back to the crater, seeing a person walking out of it. Blue sparks crackled around his form, and his face was set in a frown. He didn't look very imposing, he was just above six foot, and didn't look too strong.

"A punk like you?" the tall man asked through clenched teeth. "You've got to be shitting me!"

"That's where they went? Your guild?" he asked nodding his head to the entrance to the cave a few feet away.

"Aye, but you'll have to get through me first."

Naruto glanced at the two fallen members before looking back to the tall man, "Doesn't sound like a problem to me."

"They are weak compared to me. Sure, we may be a team, but I am the leader of the group. Demon's Tongue's Bastion is what we were called, and I'm Higaar, the Bulwark. My defensive magic is second to none!" the man, now identified as Higaar proclaimed as two steel shields appeared on his forearms, magical barriers appearing on the shields. With speed belying his size, he moved in front of the cave entrance and took a firm stance. He raised his arms and banged his shields together, causing the two barriers to grow together, becoming one large one that was as big as the entrance to the cave. "Let's see you get through this!"

Naruto's eyes nodded, before charging his fists with lightning and shooting off at Higaar. Launching a straight punch that would have sent anyone flying, he was surprised when the barrier zapped the energy from his fist, and his bare hand crashed into the steel of the shield. Usually, this would have had an effect of still sending his opponent reeling, but instead, it was like he had punched solid steel and the numbness shooting up to his shoulder told him that doing it again was a bad idea. Kicking off, he landed a few yards away and shook his right arm out to get feeling back into it. "Why didn't you go flying? Anyone else would have!"

"Heh… Since you'll never get past me, I'll tell you a secret, when I'm defending anything, my body becomes like that of steel. I can hold the same stance and position for hours, without moving a muscle. You'll have a hard time getting me to move," Higaar smiled from behind his shields.

Without delay, Naruto gathered up magical energy in his lungs, "**Lightning Dragon's Roar!**" Unleashing his roar, he concentrated it, so that the energy didn't disperse over a larger area, making it more of a line than a cone. As the lightning barreled at Higaar, he didn't catch what the large man said.

Naruto watched as the attack impacted the barrier, yet the barrier did not give. He pumped some more power into it and held it for as long as he could before he was unable to any longer. Panting, to get air back in his lungs, he stared on, stunned as his attack seemed to be absorbed into the glowing runes hovering over the shield. Suddenly, the runes went from purple, to bright blue. In an instant, Naruto was facing his own attack head on, only it seemed to be stronger. He wasn't able to erect his own shield in time, and instead, took the full brunt of the attack, only managing to cross his arms across his midsection. Being a Dragon Slayer, he wasn't hurt by the element, but it didn't mean that he didn't suffer some damage just from the force of the hit alone. He was sent flying back, plowing a ditch along the way, kicking up dust in his wake.

"How'd you like that, boy?" Higaar questioned, still not having moved an inch. "How was that? Did you like a taste of your own medicine?"

From the dust, Naruto walked out, mostly unscathed. Sure he was covered in dirt and grass stains, but that stood to reason. His clothes had taken the biggest beating. He no longer had any sleeves on his shirt, and he was missing his left pant leg. Naruto looked down to take in his appearance and sighed, "Why do I even bother?"

Higaar just stood and watched the boy. His pose rigid, and unyielding. However, his mind was racing. The boy should have been on the ground, unconscious from that attack. He had nearly tripled the original power behind it! This kid was serious business.

"That was a good try, but with people like me, reflecting our own attacks back at us is a waste of time and energy. It just serves to piss us off," Naruto said as his body started to crackle with electricity again. "You know, it's said that a dragon's roar can pierce through anything. To have you still standing is a testament to your power. However, now I'm pulling out all the stops!"

With a war-cry, the lightning crackling around Naruto's body shot up straight into the air, at the direction of his arms. About three seconds later, a rumble from the sky was heard, as a large, dark cloud formed above the area, the electricity around his body having jumped into the clouds.

"**Lightning Dragon's Secret Technique! Lightning Storm!**" as he completed his call, his hands fled down from above his head and ended with his elbows pulled in tight to his sides. With a beckoning flare of energy, the accumulated lightning in the sky raced out of the clouds and blasted on top of Higaar's position. His face was contorted in panic as he looked up at his shielding. It seemed to be holding and for a brief moment, he had thought he won, until a crack appeared in the magic shell around him. After that, it was all it took for the lightning strike to break through and begin to electrocute Higaar. His screams were drowned out by the crash of thunder that accompanied the strike.

When the technique ended, Higaar was a crumpled, smoking, vaguely human-shaped figure lying on the ground. The grass around him was burned to a crisp, and his body was covered in burns that looked like electricity. Every now and then, his body would twitch, the residual charge causing his nervous system to spasm and short-circuit.

Naruto dropped to one knee, breathing heavily. That attack had drained more than he had thought it would. He gasped and held out his hand, recalling some of his energy with his **Electric Drain** technique. It only served to relieve him a little bit. "Man… I should probably start carrying around electrically charged lacrima. Maybe I can get that jerk Laxus to do it… Have him charge 'em but not tell him what they're for. He he he… That'll surprise him for sure the next time we fight."

Standing back up, Naruto looked to all the members that were lying unconscious. Higaar looked bad, and if he didn't get medical attention soon, he would probably die from bleeding out. At this thought, Naruto started to sway as images of him doing things played in his mind. In one, he stood over a man who was hurt, before clapping his hands together and charging his hands with electricity before placing them on the man who went rigid, before standing up just fine. _'__**Pulse Heal…**__'_ In the next, it showed him standing over a man who was definitely his foe, before he charged one fist and placed his foot on their stomach before tagging them with his hand and blue arcs appeared at his wrists and ankles, holding him in place. _'__**Arc Restraint…**__'_ The final scene showed him hunched over an opponent before bringing his hand towards his opponent's face, having to fight the man to make contact, but when he did, electricity seeped out of his opponent and into his arm. His opponent dropped to the ground, not moving, and detachedly, he knew the man was dead. _'__**Bio Leech…**__'_

Naruto shook his head, regaining his senses. He looked back down to Higaar, before moving over and clapping his hands together. He placed them on his opponent's chest, causing his body to jerk violently, but his wounds were less severe for it. He then stood back up, before placing his foot on the man's body before slamming his charged hand on his chest. He was now no danger as the arcing, blue restraints held him in place. He repeated this move to the other two men before turning to the cave and running inside.

* * *

Erza and Levy rode up on the scene of an old, forgotten church. Outside, there was a group of people tied up, forced to sit as several men in armor walked around the clearing, analyzing the area for clues. Both young women were forced to stop in their advance when two soldiers drew their weapons and pointed them at the pair.

"Halt! State your names and business for being here," one of the armored men commanded.

"We are Erza Scarlet and Levy McGarden of Fairy Tail, we're on the tail of a man from our guild," the red-haired woman responded.

The two looked between themselves, noticing the guild crest on Erza's armor, before motioning them to follow, "The captain would like a word with you."

They were lead to a tent, emblazoned with the Rune Knights' symbol on either side of the entryway. As they stepped in, they were greeted by a man with a serious look on his face, as he spoke to a lacrima.

"We need another contingent as soon as possible. We have a large number of dark mages that need to be picked up," Captain Rex requested/informed the person on the other side.

"Just bring them in yourself, we can't send a detachment to your position, you're too far out," the other person said noticeable boredom in his voice.

"Lieutenant-Colonel, sir, with all due respect, we have members of the guild missing. All we have are the grunts. None of the heavy-hitters are here. There is also the matter of the young man from Fairy Tail who is in pursuit. He needs back up," Rex said his face stern.

"Oh? Fairy Tail is involved?" he asked in surprise, "That is none of my concern. You've been given your orders, bring back your prisoners and then you can return to pursue the remainder."

Rex's eyes widened in surprise, "But sir, that'll take four days round trip! We'll lose them, the situation is dire! There is probably a-"

"Captain," the Lieutenant-Colonel cut him off, his voice stern, "I gave you orders and I expect you to follow them. Anymore arguing will be considered insubordination. Now bring back the prisoners, that is an order."

Rex's face was stony and his eyes murderous, "Yes, sir. But know that I am filing a complaint with the higher-ups when I get back."

"Do that. See how far it will get you," and then the lacrima went dark. Rex's hands dented the table in frustration as he slammed them.

"Damn him…" It was then that he noticed his audience. "I remember you," he remarked to Levy, "so this must be your back up?" he asked, turning to the knight.

"Erza Scarlet, S-Class mage of Fairy Tail," she said as she held out her hand to the man.

"Hmm… I've heard of you," he said grasping the offered appendage in a firm shake. "I didn't expect you to be quite so young."

Erza just offered an assured smile, "It is impressive that your soldiers were able to take so many prisoners. I've seen dark guilds fight until the bitter end."

The captain just glanced out the tent to the rounded up mages. "We didn't. They were all unconscious when we arrived. We just tied them up."

Erza looked astounded. "Could it have been a dissention? Or a house cleaning? I heard you say that their heavy-hitters weren't here."

Rex just shook his head as he went back to his desk, looking for something, "No, usually that ends in the wholesale slaughter of the entire guild. No, we believe that this was done by your friend, that Naruto fellow," he said as he continued to search before finding what he was looking for, "Ah, here it is. There were some burnt spots in the wood, radiating from the door inward. Upon analysis, they seemed to be burns caused by lightning magic. He was a lightning mage, right?"

Levy nodded, "Yes, he's a type of lightning mage," she said, feeling it wasn't her right to tell them he was a Dragon Slayer.

"Then we can attribute the take down of those outside to him. It also corroborates the story of those that had remained conscious, saying things about "blue lightning"," Rex ended, putting his report back down.

Erza's respect for this man had gone up a few notches. Their brief pause was interrupted when another soldier appeared in the entryway of the tent. "Sir! We believe we have found the path that the remaining members took out of here."

Without words, the captain and the Fairy Tail mages followed the recruit. They were lead to the other side of the church where the lean-to was. They stopped and the recruit pointed out across the short plain to some other soldiers out by the forest's edge. "There are wheel ruts from a carriage leading into the woods there. They seem to be fresher than the rest. We also-"

"We've found something!" a call from the tree line caught their attention, causing everyone gathered to hurry on their way down to them. A few feet in the trees, the soldier who found the marking showed his finding. It was a lightning bolt pointing in towards the woods. Erza's eyes scanned the trees, before seeing another a number of yards ahead of their position.

"It seems that Naruto has left us a trail to follow," Erza responded pointing out the next marker. Seeing what she was pointing out, Rex turned to the one who alerted their attention.

"I need you to tell First-Sergeant Marcus that he is going to be taking the bulk of the unit and heading back to Era for processing. I need four volunteers to stay, preferably people who aren't afraid they might not make it back. There's no way that we can know what we'll find up ahead," Rex commanded. "Double time."

With a quick salute, the soldier ran off. Rex then motioned to Erza and Levy to follow him back to the church. "What are you planning, captain?" Erza asked as she fell into step with him.

"I don't like my orders, so I'm choosing to ignore them. I hope that it isn't much of an imposition, but, could I trouble you to give me and my four a lift with your carriage? We'll be coming with you," he asked, turning his face to her, so she could see the seriousness in his face.

"It would be an honor," Erza replied with a smile. Suddenly, all three of them came to a sudden halt, the hairs on their arms rising for no reason. It even caused the odd hair on Erza's head to stray from the curtain that cascaded down her back.

"Look!" Levy yelled, pointing behind them. There, in the distance was a massively forming dark thunder cloud. With no warning, a huge bolt of lightning crashed from the sky to the ground. However, this one lasted for a number of seconds that was inordinate to natural lightning, making the three automatically know that it was magical in origin. The crash of thunder that followed was nearly deafening, causing everyone to cover their ears, and sending thrums of sound passing through their bodies.

"What was that?" Rex asked, louder than intended.

"Naruto…" Levy whispered out, in awe of the power that was produced. She knew he had been powerful, yet his nature was gentle. It just showed how much of an inspiration one person could be.

"Captain, I think we had better hurry," Erza said, her voice more serious than it had been before. With a nod from the captain, they all ran back to the church, Rex barking out orders as they made preparations to leave.

* * *

Naruto was breathing a little heavier from running through the cavern. The lighting was dim, but his enhanced eyesight allowed him to easily use the near-nonexistent ambient light to see his way. He rushed ahead, yet his mind couldn't brush off that this felt weird, like he knew where he was. The tunnel was relatively small, only two men could walk abreast, but it would be tight, and it was just high enough for him to not scrape his head on as he ran. He came to a sudden stop as a faint blue light came from around the next bend, lighting up the tunnel somewhat. It then hit him like a ton of bricks. This was an aeration tunnel that refreshed the air in **his** cave! With fury boiling at the intrusion of his cave, he rushed forward at an even greater speed.

A few seconds later, he could hear voices, and all they did was serve to piss him off more. He came to the exit, and his blood boiled. There were five men in his cavern; three of them were stuffing their packs full of the gold that was in the hoard of the dragon that raised him. The other two were in the small antechamber where the library was, throwing books around with complete disregard of their importance. He roared, letting his power flare, and drew all of their attention to him.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" his eyes turning blue and sparking in fury. With insane speed, he launched himself at the nearest member, and before he could react, Naruto had covered the hundred or so feet between them, and nailed him straight in the face with his **Gigawatt Blade** encased fist, sending him careening into a stalactite. Upon seeing their member get hit like that, the other four reacted, one of the two left at the pile charged, drawing a weird-looking weapon, it was a pole, or pipe that came to a tee, then split with two other pipes running parallel to each other, their ends ringed in metal disks. The most impressive part, however, was the golden-yellow electricity that arced from the top of the tee to the ends of the two parallel arms. His opponent swung the weapon, causing Naruto to dodge out of the way, watching as the weapon impacted the ground, causing it to break off a couple chunks of rock, showing its sturdiness. He was forced to further dodge as a hail of needles rained down on his position. Instead of the needles embedding themselves in the ground, the lightning mage raised his weapon, causing them to redirect towards Naruto. He was forced to dodge, right into the path of a fireball. It exploded on him in a storm of fire.

"It was foolish of you to attack us so openly," the one who unleashed the hail of needles spoke. "How you got past Higaar and the others remains a mystery. I suppose you killed them?"

From inside the inferno, Naruto stood up, calmly walking out. The front of his shirt was completely burned off, leaving it to hang like a vest, showing angry, red skin. Completely ignoring his opponent's question, he drew back his hand and with a grunt, he threw a line of electricity at the mage with the weird weapon. His opponent raised it to block, only to gaze in shock as the end wrapped around one of the parallel bars. With a forceful yank, the weapon was released from his hands, and flew into the awaiting hands of Naruto. The blonde gripped the weapon in his hands, mildly surprised at its weight. The whole thing was solid.

"Bastard! Give me back my Amp!" the mage yelled at him.

Naruto just gazed at the weapon in his hands and smirked, "Amp, huh? I like it." With that declaration, he pumped his electricity through it, making it spark between the two parallels. Grabbing it in one hand, he disappeared in a flash only to reappear below the fire mage, kicking the man's feet from under his body, before standing back up in a split second and raising the Amp up and bringing it down on the mage's face. The resounding sound of electricity surging through his opponent's body as well as the breaking of cartilage and possibly bone made the fire mage cringe in horror. There was no time to dwell on the thought as Naruto was forced to dodge yet another hail of needles that came at him from behind. He was lucky to be extremely fast since the needles rained intensely, blanketing a large area.

"How dare you interfere with our work, you pest?" the needle mage spoke. He looked down upon Naruto in disdain. "Then you go and attack our men… What audacity!" he punctuated his statement with a punch that threw a line of needles at Naruto. He rolled out of the way, only to have to dodge as they were once again redirected by the Lightning mage, even though Naruto still had his Amp. Thinking quickly, Naruto channeled electricity through his new weapon, watching as he "caught" the incoming needles, before pivoting and sending them straight back at the one who cast them with a swing of the Amp.

The mage did nothing to dodge, just raised his arm and absorbed the Needles back into his body. He then dusted off his suit before signaling the other two mages to get down, which they did, before his body seemed to explode like a bomb throwing needles in a sphere around him. Naruto reacted as fast as he could, bringing his right hand to bear and raising a **Polarity Shield** between him and the oncoming attack. His only problem was that wasn't fully standing behind the shield, and as a consequence, his left arm received some modifications. Dropping the shield, he looked down at his arm in pain, seeing more than a dozen needles stuck in the appendage. It hung loosely with the Amp clattering at his feet.

"Oh you're still standing? No matter," the needle mage scoffed, his suit looking like Swiss cheese. He called to the lightning mage, since he was closest to the blond, "finish him."

The other mage stood up before charging up an attack. He brought his hands above his head, before bringing them down in arcs, then bringing them back together around waist height, his left hand resting on the bottom with his right hand on top. He then pulled them apart and an orb of electricity formed in between his hands. The needle mage turned and watched as the final guild mate rose from the ground, dusting himself off. So far he had been the only one to not fight. The two made eye contact, and unspoken conversation being sent through their eyes. They paid no heed when the lightning mage's power spiked, signifying his about the launch the attack, but their attention was drawn when after he cry of the attack's name, there was no explosion. The only sound was a startled gasp.

The two whirled around, seeing Naruto gripping the attack in his right hand. It was a sobering event. He was holding a ball of pure, magical electricity in his hand and was not feeling any ill effects of it. Deliberately, he raised the attack to his mouth before taking a bite of the orb. The three mages watched in morbid fascination as he ate the attack. Then, he flexed his left arm, forcing all of the needles from the appendage, the holes healing over, just leaving small trails of blood down his limb.

"Wh-What are you?" the Needle mage managed to ask. His only reply was a dramatic increase of power output from the blonde.

"**Lightning Dragon's Roar!" **he shouted, releasing a very powerful, wide stream of blue electricity from his mouth at the mages. When the light died down, it showed the lightning mage, and needle mage knocked out, and the last member standing with a giant axe between him and Naruto. The axe easily eclipsed the man in size; the hilt was longer than him by double his height.

"Let's dance, kid," the man said as he suddenly grew to three times his height, and the axe was now better suited for his use. Naruto just smirked before kicking off at the man.

* * *

Erza was sitting in the driver's seat of the carriage, her eyes following the markers left by the blonde as he had run through the undergrowth. In the passenger compartment, Levy was sandwiched between two knights in full plate armor and across from her was two more and Captain Rex. She felt smaller than usual surrounded by men in bulky suits of armor that were also very tall. She shyly looked around the compartment, fighting to keep a blush off her face.

"Levy-san," Rex called to gain her attention, "you seem to know the most of Naruto-san, do you think we have any chance of catching up to him? He couldn't have much more than ten minutes on us."

Levy shook her head in apology, "I'm really not sure. He's a really new member. He's only been with the guild for a week. I only know his speed from when we rushed to check out the fire. But I'm certain that even with ten minutes, he'll have covered at least double the ground that we will."

Rex frowned at this development. Their thoughts were disrupted as the carriage came to a shuddering, skidding halt. Those nearest the windows looked out before Rex gave the order to disembark. When they exited the vehicle, they were showed the scene that was the cause of their stop. Outside, there was what looked like the exploded remains of a magical carriage. There were also four bodies lying in the vicinity of an entrance to a cave. Erza had already disembarked and made her way over to the biggest of the group, and she was kneeling beside the man with a searching expression.

"What do you make of this?" came her voice to the group. They moved over and saw what she was looking at. The man was unconscious, yet it seemed like his limbs were shackled to the ground by blue rings of electricity.

"Naruto's electricity is blue!" Levy's happy cry told the story. So it had seemed that Naruto had been here and arrested the offending members of the guild.

Rex just looked on with a stoic face, "How do we break them so we can arrest them?"

Erza reached out a hand to the ring binding the big man's arm and without any prompting, it disappeared. Erza looked surprised as all rings disappeared at once. Signaling two of his men, Rex ordered them to tie up the other two and the last two of his men to tie up the big guy. "Well, looks like he went in there. I wonder where it leads."

The two ladies and the captain turned to the entrance and were about to enter when what sounded like footsteps echoed through the entrance, the steps were followed by what sounded like something dragging across the ground. The three prepared for battle, the captain and Erza drew swords while the little bookworm prepared to throw a spell. The steps grew louder and the scraping drew nearer and soon, into the light emerged a rather tall blonde dragging a large man, who was tied up with smaller men tied to him, all being dragged by a rope over Naruto's left shoulder. Over his right was the very large axe that the large man used against him, and across his back, glowing with blue electricity, was the Amp.

Naruto gazed at the impressed expressions of Erza and Rex who still had their weapons drawn, and then at the rapidly approaching Levy who jumped up and wrapped her arms around his neck with happy laughter, "I'm so glad you're okay!"

He let go of the rope and wrapped his left arm around her, giving her a firm hug, "Told you I'd be fine." Letting her go, she dropped back to the ground and gave him a beautiful smile. He then turned to the two people in armor and gave a left-handed two-fingered salute, "Yo."

Erza and Rex both re-sheathed their weapons. Rex was the first to talk. "Geeze, kid, you really are a machine. Nice work at the church by the way. And here for that matter," he said gesturing around to the surroundings. "Any chance that I could get you to come work for the Rune Knights?"

Naruto laughed and shook his head, "Sorry, but my heart is that of a Fairy Tail mage. I like being able to make my own decisions," he finished with a wink.

Rex just chuckled and walked up to the rope that Naruto had been using to pull the tied up mages, grabbed it, and with very little strain, started dragging them as well. Naruto then turned to the redhead who was walking over, calmly. He nodded his greeting to the woman, "Hi, Naruto Namikaze at your service. Didn't catch your name there," he smiled, while extending his left hand, his right still being occupied with the giant axe.

"Erza Scarlet, S-Class mage of Fairy Tail," she replied, taking his hand and giving it a firm handshake. "I'm impressed. Not many new members could boast of being able to take down so many mages single-handedly. I'm sure Master Makarov will have high praise to sing for you."

Naruto smiled sheepishly and set the axe down into the ground, the blade easily sinking in under its weight. "Nah, I only did what was right. I couldn't let Tartarus get their hands on the book that they wanted, who knows what they could do with it."

Erza nodded in understanding before turning her gaze to the weapon that Naruto had been carrying. "Impressive. I have heard of this axe before," she said letting her gaze drift over it. "It's one of a pair of axes, both brothers, known as the Giant's Execution. Only those with immense strength and size could ever hope to wield it properly," she then walked to the handle, before turning to Naruto. "May I?" And with a nod from Naruto, she picked it up out of the ground like it was nothing. She faced away from the other two mages and gave it a couple of swings.

"Why don't you keep it?" Naruto suggested. This in turn caused Erza to look at him with wide eyes.

"You can't be serious. This weapon would cost a fortune at any vendor. You just want to give it to me?" the expression on her face was priceless.

Naruto just nodded, a smile splitting his face. "Yeah, I don't really use weapons, and I recently got something that I find suits me better anyway," he said, pulling the Amp off his back. Erza nodded in understanding before concentrating and making the axe disappear into her **Requip** space. With a stretch, Naruto gave a loud sigh of pleasure. "Why don't we head home so I can get a change of clothes and a nice warm shower to get this grime off me?"

Erza nodded in affirmation, while Levy blushed thinking of Naruto's frame, water cascading down it. She really should stop reading _those_ types of books. Before they could go to the captain and his men who were also getting their prisoners ready for transport by tying them to the top of the carriage, a voice caused them all to freeze in place.

"Well, well, well, I was wondering what was taking that useless guild so long to get to the meeting site, seems they ran into a little interference," came a silky smooth woman's voice. All three mages turned to see a petite woman, with long brown-blonde hair that came to her ankles. She was dressed in leather pants and a corset, though neither did anything to accentuate curves that were not there. Her feet were adorned by stiletto heels, making the woman who would normally be Levy's height be taller.

"Who are you, and what do you want?" Erza commanded as she unsheathed her sword and adopted a fighting stance, while Naruto was in a ready stance.

With a bow and giggle, the woman introduced herself, "My name is Cynthia, also known as The Reflection, of Tartarus. Erza's and Naruto's eyes widened at the name of the guild, while Levy started to quake in fear. Righting herself, the newly dubbed Cynthia smiled, "Now, if you'd be so kind as to hand over that book, I can be on my way."

"We don't have the book you're looking for," Naruto growled out, his arms crackling blue.

With a giggle, Cynthia shook her head, "You can't lie to me, I can sense it. It's over there," she then pointed to the magical carriage, confusing the three mages. "Now if you could be a doll and fetch it for me, this won't have to get ugly."

Naruto's face only reflected confusion but soon changed to dread upon hearing Levy's gasp. He turned his head to look at the small woman, whose eyes held a fear so potent, she was almost crying. Turning his gaze back to the leather-clad woman, he whispered out to her, "Get to the carriage and destroy that book."

Levy hesitantly nodded, before turning and running to the carriage. As soon as she ran, Naruto shot forward like a bolt of lightning, intending on taking this girl down. A look of mild surprise crossed her features before Naruto's leg impacted her face, causing an explosion of light to erupt as well as Naruto's scream of agony to pierce the air. When the light died down, they could only see Naruto kneeled down, holding onto his right leg that looked to be broken. Erza reacted as well, launching herself across the field, her sword held in a high, over-head strike. The woman casually lifted her arm to block as Erza's sword came down. The sound of screaming metal before a loud crack echoed across the field. Erza's sword had shattered, three quarters of the blade were now just shards of shrapnel that pierced her arms where her armor did not cover, as well as giving a few scratches to her face and neck. The force had reverberated down the blade, causing the handle and remaining quarter of the blade to fly out of her hands and into the small hand of the blonde woman. Levy stared in horror as a **Solid Script: Fire **spell rested a few feet away from the backpack of books.

"I wouldn't do that," the woman's voice called to her as she held the blade at Erza's neck. "Now, bring me the book," her voice no longer having a playful lilt to it.

Levy looked down at the pack, before opening it and starting to pull out different tomes, "I-I don't…"

"Leather-bound, vellum pages, gold-leaf trimming," the woman's voice called across the field.

Levy started searching, tears of fright in her eyes. Her hands shook uncontrollably as she searched for the book. She hoped with all of her might that nothing bad would happen. After tossing about ten books out of the way, she found the book that she was looking for. She pulled it out of the bag before she turned to the woman. She shivered a bit and unsteadily got to her feet.

"I-I fou-found it…" her voice trembled.

Cynthia just shook her head in exasperation, "Then bring it here, you useless girl."

Levy started walking uneasily, her steps mired in fear. After a few paces, she was stopped by the blonde man kneeling on the ground.

"Don't give it to her, Levy!" Naruto shouted.

Cynthia's only response was to press the blade into Erza's neck more, "I'm the one with the bargaining piece, now bring. It. Here."

Levy took another step before a bright flash of blue erupted from Naruto's hands onto his leg. With a lunge, he body tackled the dark mage, catching her off guard. Despite her ability to stop Naruto's attack, it didn't seem to apply to being able to grapple her. She was actually physically weak. She struggled as he pinned her arms to the ground with his knees.

"Get off of me, you pest!" she growled out.

Naruto chuckled at her command, "I don't think so. You don't seem so tough now."

Suddenly, her eyes glowed purple, "I said… Get. OFF!" From her body erupted a huge kinetic blast that hit Naruto full force, before pushing past and throwing Erza over fifteen feet back, through the air. She hit the ground hard, skidding across the ground. Cynthia's eyes widened in amazement that Naruto was still atop her. "How is that possible? That amount of force this close should have liquefied your organs!"

Naruto just smirked, though it was pained, like he had taken a titanic blow in his solar plexus. "We **Dragon Slayers** are made out of tougher stuff than your regular mages. That hurt, for sure, and I'll be sore in the morning, but you can't kill me that easily."

Cynthia's eyes widened before narrowing. "Then I'll have to try harder," she sneered as her eyes erupted in purple again.

"No you won't!" Naruto roared as he threw as many volts of electricity through her as he could. She cried out in pain as her concentration was broken. After ten seconds, Naruto stopped his assault. He took a deep breath at the draining feeling that came with it. He looked at her, her clothes were smoking and her breathing was a little labored. "Now settle down. The rune knights are taking you in."

She just breathed as Naruto was approached by Erza, Levy, Rex, and one of Rex's subordinates. Rex whistled in appreciation. "Damn glad you're on our side."

This remark earned a chuckle all around. Erza tucked an errant strand of hair behind her right ear, "Very impressive, Naruto. You took down a criminal that even I couldn't."

Naruto chuckled before wincing, "Yeah, but don't ask me to do it again," he felt his ribs, wincing at each touch. "Yeah, definitely going to feel it in the morning."

Their banter was cut short by Cynthia chuckling, this caused Rex to snarl, "What's so funny?"

"You -haha- you… You really think -hahaha- you have me beat?" the labor in her breathing was steadily lessening. This caused those opposite her to glance between themselves. "Let me educate you on my power. It's called **Rebound**, and it uses your force against you."

Naruto narrowed his eyes, raising a hand up, "What do you mean?"

"What happens when you charge a lacrima up only to release what's contained inside?" she smirked with an unstable glint in her eye.

"Then I'll just suck what's inside out!" Naruto roared as his hand sparked with red, menacing lightning. He swiftly brought it down to Cynthia's face, causing the girl's eyes to widen in horror. The feeling of him literally sucking the life out of her brought unbridled terror to her being. With the fear guiding her, she released all of the pent-up energy that she had absorbed during Naruto's assault. The resulting explosion threw everyone around her off and through the air. As the kicked up dust started to settle, it showed Rex upside down, leaning against the overturned carriage. Erza had tumbled across the ground, ending up thirty yards away, a noticeable dent marred her breastplate, and looked like it made breathing hard if it wasn't the pain of her impromptu trip that was doing it. Levy, who had been a little further back still took a big brunt of the force. Her tiny body was slumped against a tree, unconscious with blood dripping down her face from somewhere within her hair. And Naruto… Naruto landed on the ground with a meaty flop and slight bounce about three seconds after the dust had settled. He had taken the biggest amount of the force, causing him to fly high into the sky. It was amazing that he was still conscious after all the torment that his body had taken. With labored breathing, he squinted through the pain only to watch as Cynthia stooped down to pick up the book she had come for. She cast a baleful look at Naruto and raised a hand to unleash another kinetic force at Naruto, only to wince and lower her arm. She then turned and left Naruto's vision.

Sounds swam around him as others were recovering, the last thing he remembered was the feeling of hands grabbing him, pulling him, and then nothing.

* * *

Naruto found himself in darkness. He felt weightless. His attention was drawn to a figure standing in the darkness. It was a small boy, dressed in a baggy t-shirt with a red spiral on the front. His legs were adorned with shorts, and his feet were covered in sandals. The boy's face was buried into his left arm, his right clenched at his side. Naruto could hear the sobs that signified the boy's crying. He walked over to the kid.

"What's wrong?" Naruto asked, squatting down to the boy's level. The boy showed no reaction to having heard him. "Are you hurt?" still no answer. "Can you tell me your name?" sobs were his only response. He waved his hand in front of the boy's face, "Hello-o-o…"

Suddenly, the boy started running, only he wasn't moving. It was like watching a movie with all of the background cut out. Naruto's eyes widened when he could see his face. The three whisker-like marks on either side of his face gave it away as himself.

"What the?" Naruto asked, stumbling backward. Suddenly, he was facing himself, older now. Probably not even a teenager. He was wearing a hideous orange jumpsuit, and was wearing a strange metal headband.

"_I'll get him back, Sakura-chan, dattebayo!"_ his younger self remarked, adopting a cock-sure smirk and giving a thumbs-up.

The scene changed again, this time, he was closer to his current age, he was still wearing orange, only now it was evened out with black. A long red coat with black flames across the bottom and a large scroll across his lower back completed the ensemble.

"_So this is what Pein is capable of?"_ his effigy spoke, noticing his eyes looked weird and were surrounded by red pigment.

The next transition showed him, a little older, glaring up at something. He wasn't wearing the red coat, but was still wearing the orange jumpsuit.

"_Having my friends with me makes me truly strong!"_

Then, there was a bright flash of yellow, and a glowing figure appeared in the darkness, it had the head of a dragon, and the wings of a dragon, but had a long, snake-like body with no appendages. With a loud roar, Naruto found the world fading.

* * *

Naruto's eyes opened to a white ceiling and the smell of disinfectants. He sat up with a groan, his ribs still hurt. He took a moment to reflect on the dream he had had. _'I was standing talking and… No, there was a… Wait, I was there and… Someone had…'_ too late, he had forgotten already. Something about endless food or something. At that moment, his stomach released a titanic growl.

"Ugh… Where can a guy get a bite to eat around here?" he asked the room, his voice was scratchy and dry. He looked around and found a sink, walking to it, he bent over and took a drink from the spigot and sighed as his throat was rehydrated. With a groan, he stretched out, before tensing up in pain as his action strained very sore places. He gingerly relaxed, before groaning in relief. He looked down, seeing his chest wrapped in bandages, going all the way to his waist. His boxers covered up the bottom of the bandages. His right leg was bandaged below the knee as was his left arm below the elbow. In his distraction at his appearance, he didn't hear the door open. The startled gasp caused his attention to fly to the portal out of the room.

Mirajane stood, shocked at seeing Naruto awake and moving around stopped in her tracks and dropped the bag she had been holding before sprinting across the room and tackling Naruto in a hug of epic proportions. "You're awake! We've all been worried about you!" she squealed. She then tightened her hug, which elicited a response she had not been intending on.

In what could only be described as the most unmanly sound ever made, Naruto shrieked in pain. A shriek like a little girl makes when playing with her friends. The kind of shriek that makes you think that they're being murdered only to see them running around with a smile. "AH-HA-HA-HA-A-A-A-A-A!"

Not too long after, Naruto was to be found by the hospital staff on the floor with an embarrassed Mirajane standing over him, bowing and saying she's sorry repeatedly. Helping the poor man back onto the bed, and giving him a quick once over to make sure she hadn't made anything worse with her **Titanic Hug of Doom (patent pending)**, the doctors left to get discharge papers as there was nothing else they could do to help along his healing process, his ribs would just be sore for about a week or two. The two now left alone in the room, were strangely muted and reclusive of each other. Mira was looking a little meek, whereas Naruto was just spacing, waiting for his permission to leave.

"Oh!" Mira exclaimed, disrupting the quiet. She took a few steps to a chair at the foot of the bed, before pulling up the bag she had carried into the room, "I brought you some new clothes! I figured if you woke up, you'd want to change into something more than a hospital gown," she added with a smile. She gently set it on the bed next to him, and stepped back, clasping her hands in front of her chest with a smile splitting her lips. Naruto just glanced from her, back to the bag, before reaching in, and pulling out the first article of clothing. His eyes widened in surprise, before a vicious smirk made its way to his face.

* * *

It was ten minutes later when Naruto and Mirajane exited the hospital. Mira's face was awash with red, she had no idea that her choice in clothing would have made such a difference. But it had certainly turned the heat up in the hospital. That was surely the reason that the nurse had fainted in the room, and a handful more as well as some patients had before they had gotten out of the doors where they were now.

Naruto had donned his new outfit, and he had to admit, it was cool. Mira had great taste. His torso was covered with a white tank top, which seemed a bit tight as it clung to his form, defining the hard lines of training that he had earned. Over that was a black leather vest that was trimmed all around the arm holes, the collar, and the hem with soft grey-white fur. Below that, his legs were covered in long, blue pants that were darker at the waist and lightened as it got closer to the ankles, going from near navy to a shade or two darker than sky. The pants were lined with pockets that ran along the sides of his legs, and were held up by a thick belt, with a secondary, thinner belt hanging loosely off his left hip. His feet were adorned with boots that ran up to his middle shin, and his pants easily tucked into. They were very comfortable, and seemed almost made to his feet. His new wardrobe didn't end there, his hands also got a pair of fingerless gloves, he was even able to slide the ring he got from his mission over the little bit of finger that was on the gloves. And to finish off the ensemble, Mira had decided to also equip him with a pair of forearm bracers.

"How much did this set you back, Mira?" Naruto asked as he gave himself a once-over in the light of the afternoon.

"Oh, it didn't set me back at all! I used the money that you and Levy brought back! I may have also picked up a couple of dresses as well," Mira blushed as she thought about just how many she actually bought.

Naruto nodded his approval. "You have very nice taste," he complimented with a smile. Mira giggled and blushed at the compliment before they both set off for the guild hall. The walk was companionable, and quiet, until Naruto had to break it again. "Say, Mira," he said getting her attention, "I didn't ask you in the hospital, but how many days was I out?"

"Two and a half," Mira replied. "It took Erza about half a day to get you and Levy back here. You were in a far worse condition, that's why you were still at the hospital. Levy just got bandaged up and some pain killers for her headache. She's really beating herself up about what happened."

Naruto looked sad at that revelation. "No, it's my fault that we lost to that Cynthia person. I was the one who attacked her without knowing the extent of her powers." He then punched his left fist into his right palm with a grim look on his face. "Next time I'll be ready, though. She won't stand a chance."

Mira just looked with a slightly open mouth before she closed it into a smile. She then moved closer to him and wrapped her arms around his right arm and leaned her head on his shoulder, "So, if those bad people ever come back, you'll protect me, right Naruto?"

Naruto's face lit up a bright crimson as he glanced down at her. "W-well of course, Mira-chan. I'll protect you, I'll protect Levy-chan, I'll protect your stupid brother, and I'll protect everyone in Fairy Tail. Because you're all my precious people, and I always protect my precious people."

Mira's eyes softened as she looked up at him. She then lowered her head back to his shoulder and sighed wistfully. They continued on as such until they reached the door of Fairy Tail, where the sounds of a rowdy party could be heard. Naruto turned to Mira with a smile on his face.

"Sounds like one hell of a party in there. Is there any reason _not_ to have one?" he asked the beauty by his side. With a giggle, his only reply was a shake of the head before he pushed the door open. He noticed that everyone in the hall was now looking at who was coming through the doors. Upon seeing Naruto, a huge, explosive round of cheers resounded throughout the hall. It was nearly deafening. The clear surprise on Naruto's face was evident. He was broken from his stunned silence as Mira stepped through the door around him. He just followed her and let the door swing closed behind him. The cheering didn't stop, however, and a few cat-calls, and shouted greetings floated to him through the air.

"Yeah, Naruto!"

"Good job, kid!"

"Have a drink on me!"

"Come sit with us!"

Naruto just raised his hand, confusion still permeating his being. He waved to everyone, which only seemed to make them cheer harder. He made his way up to the bar, where Mira had taken her place behind and Makarov had taken his spot on the bar. The old man was clearly three sheets to the wind, and his face reflected that. The usual light dusting of red had instead encompassed his entire face. A bit of the head of the beer clung to his mustache, yet his eyes were lidded heavily and a slight sway was in his posture.

"Ah-hah!" Makarov called as he spied Naruto. He pointed at the young man unabashedly, "There he ish! Our newesht Eshh-Class Mage!" he then cackled manically before passing out on the bar top.

Naruto stared at him wide-eyed, and responded astutely, "What?"

* * *

**A/N: This took entirely too long to get out, and I apologize. I must confess, I put it off in my quest to get my main geared after re-picking up WoW. Now that I've done end-game content, I have found another distraction vice in a 2****nd**** play through of Fallout: New Vegas, and a new MMO, Defiance. So, I've been very bad. I'll get right on the next chapter after my anniversary and I am setting a due date for before the end of July. Let's see how that goes for me. **

**As always, please enjoy.**

**AtheistBear **


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